Congo conflict minerals get legislation

Enviromine

Publishing Date: 01 Jun 2009 2:16pm GMT
Author: Mining, People and the Environment

Legal and Legislation Sustainability

Campaigns to prevent minerals being illegally mined in the Democratic Repubic of the Congo as a means of funding armed rebel groups got a boost this month, when three US senators introduced the Congo Conflict Minerals Act.

The act calls on the US to support multilateral efforts to investigate, monitor and stop activities involving natural resources that contribute to illegally armed groups and human rights violations in eastern DRC.

Cassiterite, columbite-tantalite (coltan) and wolframite are all mined in the DRC and are thought to be part of an illegal trade funding armed groups.

The Congo Conflict Minerals Act would require US-registered companies trading in these minerals to annually disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission their country, and even mine of origin.

The Act is similar to the wider Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) which with the support of Germany’s Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources (BGR), the DRC joined in April last year. As part of the EITI the DRC hopes to introduce a certification scheme for coltan, cassiterite, wolframite and gold, similar to the Kimberly process.