The trade of gold, tantalum, tin, and tungsten helps finance violent conflict in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. To reduce revenue to armed groups profiting from this trade, Congress directed the Securities and Exchange Commission to require companies using these conflict minerals to disclose their origins.

SEC's rule requiring the disclosures hasn't reduced violence. Armed groups continue to fight for control of gold mines in the country's eastern region. This is partly because gold is harder to trace and easier to smuggle than the other minerals.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) 2012 conflict minerals disclosure rule has not reduced violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and has likely had no effect in adjoining countries. The rule requires certain companies to file reports on their use of tantalum, tin, tungsten, and gold, which are mined in the DRC. GAO found no empirical evidence that the rule has decreased the occurrence or level of violence in the eastern DRC, where many mines and armed groups are located. GAO also found the rule was associated with a spread of violence, particularly around informal, small-scale gold mining sites. This may be partly because armed groups have increasingly fought for control of gold mines since gold is more portable and less traceable than the other three minerals. Further, GAO found that the number of violent events in the adjoining countries did not change in response to the SEC rule.