"Eastern DRC: Stop Fixating on Conflict Minerals", 23 Jun 2014

...some, such as John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, also...attributed the [rebel group] M23's collapse on: “a series of actions designed to dry up the international market for so-called conflict minerals, which help fund the armed groups in Congo.”...This emphasis on ‘conflict minerals’...is particularly popular amongst various advocacy groups...and certain US legislators...but can we really attribute the fall of the once unstoppable M23 to a tightening of regulations?...The short answer seems to be no...[R]esearch suggests that the amount of smuggled commodities from the eastern DRC has risen over recent years, partly to sidestep the Dodd-Frank regulations...[Minerals] simply...have never been a root cause of the conflicts that have shattered the eastern DRC...The M23, for instance, never sought physical access to mines...8-10 million people in the eastern DRC are economically linked to artisanal mining...These local actors...claim that their livelihoods have been severely undermined... [A]lternative lifelines for artisanal miners are few and far between...[I]nitiatives aimed at improving traceability and certification − such as iTSCi..., Motorola’s ‘Solutions for Hope’ (SFH) and the ‘Conflict-Free Tin Initiative’ (CFTI) projects − have started in just a handful of sites...[Miners face] unfavourably low mineral prices − partly because the iTSCi and other initiatives lead to buyer monopsonies...