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From VOA Learning English,
this is the Economics Report.
Researchers have produced a new map of mining areas
in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The map shows mines under the control of
the Congolese army and armed groups.
The study suggests that the top conflict mineral
in the area is now gold.
A Belgian group,
the International Peace Information Service (IPIS),
carried out the study in partnership
with the DRC registry of mines.
The researchers found that armed groups were involved
in about 200 of the 800 mines they studied,
the Congolese army was involved at 265 mines.
The researchers reported that both the military
and the militias are taxing mine workers illegally.
The International Peace Information Service
carried out a similar survey in 2009.
Filip Hilgert was the lead researcher.
He told VOA the map they made 4 years ago is no longer correct.
He said many of the miners are now digging for gold,
and he said the armed groups are profiting much more
from gold than from other conflict minerals,
such as tin, tungsten and tantalum.
These minerals are often called the "three T's."
One reason for the change has been an increase
in the price of gold.
Another reason has been stronger international rules
for mineral imports.
The United States Congress passed legislation
to fight the trade of conflict minerals.
Mr Hilgert says such efforts have had a big effect
on trade in the three T's,
but it has not effected the gold trade.
Judith Sargentini is a member of the European parliament.
She has been campaigning for a European law on conflict minerals.
She notes that gold like diamonds
is easy to transport in small amounts,
that explains why it is hard to know where it was mined.
The German geological institute BGR
has collected minerals from hundreds of mines in Rwanda.
The collections could be used to prove
whether a sample of minerals came from a conflict area.
But Judith Sargentini suggests
that geophysical tests will not work.
She say buyers need to know about their suppliers.
"You cannot solve every trade in a commodity by trying
to find out what the geological background of a material is.
It shows that you need, first of all,
a due diligence supply chain,
and second of all,
initiatives that lead to fairtrade gold mining," said Sargentini.
Due diligence in this case means knowing
and being about to trust your supplier.
And that is the Economics Report for VOA Learning English.
I'm Mario Ritter.
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