Major Electronics Firms Support Ending Use of "Conflict Minerals"

Posted by Soulskill on Saturday November 21, 2009 @01:12AM from the americans-just-want-their-fancy-phones dept.

tburton writes "The US House of Representatives yesterday released the Conflict Minerals Trade Act (HR 4128) to try and end the international trade of tungsten, tantalum and col-tan, the mining of which is accused of fueling violent rape and murder in eastern Congo. Since the very same minerals power the most popular consumer electronics from HP, Verizon, Nokia, RIM and Intel, the Information Technology Industry Council has quickly signed a statement of support. Advocacy groups are hopeful these commitments prove to be meaningful as consumers begin to question the end result of the supply chains powering their favorite gadget."

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Fungible Resources by Anonymous Coward · 2009-11-21 01:40 · Score: 5, Informative

Hmmm, does anyone in Congress know what a fungible resource is?
Basically, there's no way to know if the tungsten in your product (or even in your supply chain) came from the Eastern Congo, or pretty much anywhere else.
If the price for "tungsten" goes up appreciably, then Eastern Congo "tungsten" will just show up indirectly from other sources.