The idea is for the manufacturers, cell phone and computer makers, for example, to make sure that their mineral supplies come from clean mines that have no connection to the three powerful rogue groups operating in the area, which borders Rwanda and Burundi close to the geographical center of Africa. This is not a new concept; the electronics industry in the United States and Europe has a code of conduct and large coalitions that promote a transparent supply chain. Its a classic case of industry trying to regulate itself before  God forbid  Congress does. Or even worse, before there is a massive, global grass-roots groundswell that in the public’s mind links cell phones to the murder of innocents in Africa.

Everyone agrees on the basic problem in the broadest sense that its not good that these armed groups are able to finance themselves through the mineral trade, notes Carina Tertsakian, the London-based Global Witness team leader on the DRC. The question is what people are doing about it. Nongovernmental organizations, such as Global Witness and scores of others around the world, know what they want: an independently verifiable system to prove that no raw material ending up in a finished product came from a DRC mine controlled by a rebel group.

That’s essentially the same message contained in the draft version of the Senate’s bill.

Industry reaction, as best as can be gauged, is: laudable idea, impossible task. “With diamonds, there were four middlemen between the time a stone is taken out of the ground and ends up on somebody’s finger,” one D.C.-based industry lobbyist says. “With these minerals, there are 30 middlemen.”

If corporations put pressure on their first-tier suppliers, like the hard disk maker, Tertsakian says, “then it becomes the responsibility of the first-tier suppliers to put pressure on their suppliers, and so on, down the line.” Bama Athreya, the executive director of the International Labor Rights Forum, says"If some of it’s about asking questions, it doesn’t cost too much to ask questions.”

Companies will be doing far more than asking questions, however, under a draft version of the Durbin bill. In fact, companies selling products that include coltan, tungsten and tin will have to disclose to the Securities and Exchange Commission the minerals’ country of origin — and the particular mine, in the case of minerals from the DRC. 

Read full article by T.R. Goldman on Rollcall.com.