Coltan Fact - Conflict Minerals

Coltan Fact: Conflict Minerals

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Coltan Fact: Conflict Minerals  in DRC

                Ideally, conflicts across the globe are likely to be evident in the regions where the natural resources are abundant. Some of the most brutal conflicts in the world have been funded by the presence of minerals.  At the moment, resources from the high risk or conflict areas such Congo can even fund the armed groups, hence fueling the human rights abuses. The minerals eventually enter the global supply chains, thuds ending up in our jewelry, phones, laptops and other products. Such conflicts are even catalyzed mire more by the presence of the multinational corporations (Montague, 2002). Taking for instance a country like Congo, the role of multinationals in the rising level of conflicts has been evident. This is because of the presence of Coltan, one of the most valuable minerals across the globe, courtesy of its diverse needs. A lot of ethical questions arise from this issue. It is very logical for one to think what to do exactly with these corporations that seem to put their interests first than the value of human life in these conflict zones. The paper considers this scenario in relation to the multinational corporations’ use of coltan, in light to ethical expectations of a business.

                Dozens of multinationals such as Anglo American and De Beers have been accused of facilitating the the plunder of the DRC wealth. About 85 companies, all based in Europe, South Africa and the US have violated the ethical guidelines in dealing with the criminal networks that have pillaged the natural resources in Congo (Maystadt et al, 2014). The involvement of the multinational companies in such actions in in itself unethical and any solid proof against them can definitely call for stringent actions against them. As the companies remain adamant that they stick to the guidelines, the negative impacts of the mines are still experienced at a very alarming rate.

                The mining of Coltan  in the DRC is best known to be  the human rights violator. The major problem here is associated with the decisions that are constantly made by the technological companies using the mineral and its impacts on the human rights. The implications on the human rights starting from extraction to production have dictated the economy, health and the social structure of the country. This is when the Coltan mining started, and has garnered a lot of attention in the recent years. The major players in the committed breaches are the multinational companies that are not keen on how they source their mines, hence leading to sourcing of coltan from Congo.  The benefits eventually trickle down to the suspected groups to finance their illegal activities (Autesserre, 2012). Congo has for ling been coupled with wars, and these wars are directly linked to the mineral resources in the country. Western multinationals and countries have developed a lot of interest in these natural resources which have had devastating impacts on locally.

                The financial crisis is a reality that has hit very many multinational corporations. As such, these corporations have resulted into compensating the losses on the stock markets by engaging themselves in illegal businesses and benefiting from the conflicts that have made many peoples skilled outside their home countries, in places such as DRC. The conflict in the DRC actually took a new dimension in the year 2008, which had not initially been seen from its onset (Maystadt et al, 2014). Despite the fact that there was a lot of killings, rape and looting, there was no any evident action that was taken by the international community amid these skirmishes. As such, there was some neglect on the role of the multinational corporations in the conflict.

The role of the international corporations in the atrocities is beyond any reasonable doubt. Taking for instance the year 2001,UN report which indicated that about 85 companies were named for violating the international standards of good corporate behavior. The report was commissioned by the UN Corporation (Eichstaedt, 2011).

                There are various companies that were reportedly created in order to facilitate the illegal business activities. Many other companies are said to have existed in the region for many years, and known to pursue the financial windfalls that are involved in the exploitation of the country. In fact these Ugandan military officials are also accused to have created the new companies, most of which were privately owned by individuals or groups of people (Perk & Vlassenroot, 2010).

                Taking a snapshot of some of the companies that were involved in the illicit acquisition of the natural resources in the DRC, Victoria and Trinity are some of the interesting players, considering their shareholders, activities, and modus operandi. The Victoria group is involved sin trading coffee, gold and diamond. The group purchases agricultural products and minerals in places such as Buta, Bondo, Isiso among others. This company is said to pay taxes to MLC, but could not comply with the requirements for companies like RCD-ML. The moment fake currencies were found at a place where the company is said to buy its natural resources, a lot of blame was directed to Victoria group(Maystadt et al, 2014).

                When the business activities are carried out, the multinational corporations which benefit from the conflicts try to use ignorance as there defense, arguing that they are normally not aware of the provenance of minerals that they purchase. However, these companies do so in order to avoid any investigations that may reveal the truth. The multinationals also fail or deliberately refuse to perform enough due diligence about their suppliers, hence failing to meet the minimum standards of the ethical business conduct. The companies refuse to go beyond this standard by putting in place measures that will ensure that they are not purchasing conflict minerals. They instead continue to exploit the mineral wealth with a lot of insouciance (Woody, 2012).

                Another ethical issue breached by the multinational corporations is that there is a lot of economic danger that is attached to Congo. Groups that study the developing nations such as Oxfam warn against a developing country investing much of its capital. into the morning operations, particularly in the single  mineral developments. As much as countries such as Australia  and Canada can turn there mining operations into more profitable industries, these are not practical models that are likely to support  the reliance of the developing countries  on the mining operations  to boost the economic development of these countries. The dependence of the developing countries on the mining creates a lot of tension as a result of a small size of these countries and the exploitation of the resources target are nonrenewable as opposed to the other natural resources. For a country like DRC, this definitely leads to political instability and poor economic performance, and this eventually creates the conflict that make coltan a commodity that is ethically charged (Prendergast & Lezhnev, 2009).