Foreign Policy Blogs

Profit and Blood

Mined tin ore from the Eastern DRC
Mined tin ore from the Eastern DRC

Advocates against illegal mining and resource-fuelled conflict gained another small victory with a leading trader of tin on the London Metal Exchange announcing that it is suspending all purchases of tin ore from the Democratic Republic of the Congo until a certification scheme can be put in place to ensure that the purchases are not benefitting rebel groups who illegally mine the ore in the country’s war-torn eastern region.  However while these types of commitments against conflict resources sound good in the press, in this case it may be the proverbial drop of water in an ocean.

The move by Amalgamated Metals Corporation came after a key report released by the advocacy group Global Witness earlier this year named Thaisarco, a subsidiary of AMC, as one of several companies purchasing mineral resources from middlemen who trade with the many armed rebel groups found in the DRC.  The report generated plenty of media coverage, particularly in AMC’s home country of Britain.  As a result, AMC has announced its plans to design a regulatory certificate scheme that will ensure that its business does not contribute to the ongoing conflict there.

Global Witness is no stranger to such certification schemes as it was one of the central organizations behind the campaign against so-called conflict diamonds.   The result of that campaign was the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme which brought together human rights groups, industry leaders, and governments to stop the trade of diamonds from war zones.  Though there are concerns about the effectiveness of the Kimberley Process – the trade of diamonds out of Zimbabwe being one key example – the Kimberley Process still represents the greatest accomplishment against resource-fuelled conflict.

Children mining gold for foreign companies in the Eastern DRC
Children mining gold for foreign companies in the Eastern DRC

However such a scheme may not be successful for tin ore.  The Kimberley Process became necessary for the diamond industry because its clients cared about the negative connotation that diamonds were beginning to have.  But other mineral resources do not have that same momentum for change.  For tin, the DRC provides only a small amount of the global tin ore supply.  Because of the other sources available, Western companies have started to shy away from purchasing tin from the DRC because of public relations concerns, but other countries with tin needs are readily purchasing it from the DRC regardless of human rights concerns.  In this context, no real progress can be made on the trading of tin, gold, coltan, copper, and other minerals being illegally mined by rebel groups in the DRC without a will to act that everyone agrees on.

Creating that will has proven to be nearly impossible with other resources such as oil where want of profits continues to override human rights concerns for companies and investors.  For example, today China signed a multibillion dollar oil and mineral deal with the government of Guinea despite growing international pressure against the ruling Guinean junta following the military slaying of unarmed protestors in the capital city of Conakry last month.  Unfortunately, this deal is not surprising.  It is not the first time, nor will it be the last time, that resources are placed above human suffering.  It continues to be done all over the world, from Darfur to Burma and beyond.

Thus, while the suspension of AMC purchases from the DRC does represent a victory in the fight against conflict resources, it is a very small victory that comes when much larger ones are needed.

Congolese man selling tin ore in the Eastern DRC
Congolese man selling tin ore in the Eastern DRC
 

Author

Kimberly J. Curtis

Kimberly Curtis has a Master's degree in International Affairs and a Juris Doctor from American University in Washington, DC. She is a co-founder of The Women's Empowerment Institute of Cameroon and has worked for human rights organizations in Rwanda and the United States. You can follow her on Twitter at @curtiskj

Areas of Focus: Transitional justice; Women's rights; Africa