Since its vast natural resource the Democratic Republic of the Congo has been plagued by regional conflict for over a century. It discribed into a deadly scramble. In eastern Congo, conflict minerals are used by arm groups to financed violence and atrocities. The greed for huge profit drives rebel units scram and smuggle these minerals.

According to the newsreports:
"As much as 80% of them may be smuggled out. The export of illicit gold alone is reckoned to be worth $1.2 billion a year, almost none of it accruing to Congo's treasury; the Congolese army and the former rebels who have been accommodated within it still levy their own informal taxes. Many international companies that get their supplies from Congo directly or indirectly pay the army or rogue soldiers for them. Unable to guarantee that the minerals they acquire are untainted by conflict, some have stopped buying from Congo altogether. Others buy goods in neighbouring countries where traders have smuggled them in from Congo and have arranged dodgy paperwork to make the deals look legal. But checking the origin of most minerals on sale in Goma or Bukavu, big border towns in eastern Congo, is virtually impossible."(From The Economist)

Every year, four main minerals traded by armed units to earn hundreds of millions of dollars. They are: the ore containing tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold. This money used to purchase amount of weapons and support their campaign of brutal insurrection against civilians. The majority of these metals end up in electronic devices such as mobile phone, computers and portable music players. Consumers around the world have no way to distinguish that weather their purchases are not funding armed units' atrocities.

The conflict minerals is complicated problem, and the suffering in Democratic Republic of the Congo is much immense than words can describe. But good news is here. We can ensure that our tungsten products materials supplied from China continent, which are away from conflict mineral. And as electronics consumers, you can actually play a important role in ending the violence.