Congo mine collapse kills at least 60
Miners were working 100 metres below surface when shaft collapsed in Pangoyi, Democratic Republic of Congo
guardian.co.uk, Thursday 16 August 2012 13.48 BST
At least 60 people have been killed in a landslide at a remote Congolese gold mine.
The shaft collapsed on Monday in Pangoyi, a remote corner of north-east Democratic Republic of the Congo, a local official, Faustin Drakana Kananga, told Associated Press. The miners were in an area about 100 metres below the surface at the time of the accident.
The UN-sponsored Radio Okapi said the accident occurred after illegal miners rushed to be the first in the bottom of the pit but the sides collapsed, burying them all.
Rescue efforts have been hampered because the dense jungle area is controlled by a militia group.
A local government official told the station the mine had been abandoned after clashes between the Congolese army and a militia led by Paul Sadala, known as Morgan.
The mining companies AngloGold Ashanti and Randgold operate in the region, known to be rich in tin and gold.
Hundreds of thousands of men and women in Congo turn to artisanal mines out of desperation, due to poverty and few job opportunities. The practice is unregulated and often lethal.
Accidents are common in open-pit mines, where there are few, if any, safety precautions. Some miners are forced to work by some of the armed groups and government soldiers who illegally profit from the massive mineral resources, which in turn fuel further conflict in the vast, war-torn country.
Congo is rich in coltan, used in mobile phones and other consumer electronics, and cassiterite, or tin ore.
Last week, a report praised Apple, Intel, Motorola Solutions and Hewlett-Packard for making progress towards ending the use of “blood minerals” in their products. But the Washington-based Enough Project put Nintendo at the bottom of its conflict minerals ranking and criticised HTC, Sharp, Nikon and Canon for moving too slowly.
“Nintendo has made no known effort to trace or audit its supply chain,” the report said. “Sharp, HTC, Nikon and Canon are taking initial steps to join industry efforts, but their progress remains far behind industry leaders.”
Enough Project out to stop companies from using conflict minerals, gives Nintendo a zero ranking
“(Nintendo) outsources the manufacture and assembly of all Nintendo products to our production partners and therefore is not directly involved in the sourcing of raw materials that are ultimately used in our products. We nonetheless take our social responsibilities as a global company very seriously and expect our production partners to do the same.” – Nintendo statement
Kind of a shady answer from Nintendo. It’s almost like they’re saying that they don’t get the conflict minerals themselves, so they’re not to blame. I guess it all depends on how you look at it. Thanks to LegendofZelda1996 for the heads up.
occupythinktankwannfrieden 
4 total comments (View all) 4 most recent shown:
16 Aug 2012 04:59
I don’t understand what this means.
16 Aug 2012 05:44
^^^ Congo is in a state of war, and the minerals (specifically tin) from Congo can fuel that war.
The Enough Project is a division of the Center for American Progress, a public policy research and advisory organization, that aims at working to end genocide and crimes against humanity.
According to the International Rescue Committee, an estimated 5.4 million people have died from war-related causes in central Africa (this includes starvation, disease, and murder) since 1998, with this tin and minerals trade playing a part in the reason for this happening (mostly the indirect funding of this). They aim at stopping the money reaching the hands of warlords, armed forces and groups (many of which have and abuse slaves for labor), and corrupt government leaders, and to make the technological industry not one founded on the backs of war (and thus create a sort of “war economy”).
Many companies (Intel, Dell, Microsoft, Apple, etc.) have gotten wise, and have found ways to “trace” the sources of their trade partners to make sure none of it goes towards waging war. According to the Enough Project, this has made the trade “less bloody” in their words. The Enough Project claims that these companies have done their due diligence basically to make a clean profit without any blood on their hands.
However, Canon, Nikon, Sharp, HTC and Nintendo have received criticism from the Enough Project for not taking enough steps to make sure that their involvement in this trade hasn’t resulted in bloodshed. Nintendo got the lowest possible rating, a zero, for in the Enough Project’s eyes for refusing “to acknowledge the issue or demonstrate they are making any sort of effort on it,” according to Enough Project senior adviser Sasha Lezhnev.
Nintendo, to counter this, is stating that their production partners (basically, who they buy the material from, who are the people who buy it from Central Africa) are in charge of buying the materials, and knowing which sources are “clean” and which sources are not. Nintendo also stated, “We nonetheless take our social responsibilities as a global company very seriously and expect our production partners to do the same.” This (from my perspective) is a sign that they are about to stop doing business, at least to a certain extent, with some of these companies.
Based partially on legal changes, legal enforcement, and the technology industries’ growing desire to know who and what their sources of trade are, armed groups have made 65% less money over the past 2 years.
tl;dr
-The tech industry is trading for resources in Central Africa.
-Central Africa is on and off in all kinds of wars (different parts of Central Africa, at least), and much of the resources come from warlords and armed forces that have slaves and civilians they use and abuse, commit murder, and kill viciously.
-This has lead people to not just be relocated from their homes for fear of war, but also made many areas of Central Africa suffering from genocide, disease, and malnutrition.
-The tech industry needed these resources.
-Some companies like Intel, Apple, Microsoft, and HP were smart, researched who they are trading with, and tried to determine who worked for them, and what type of organization they were.
-This has lead to a decreased profit made by these malicious groups.
-However, other companies continue to turn a blind eye.
-The Enough Project accused Nintendo to be the worst offender of this (turning a blind eye), claiming they don’t do anything.
-Nintendo claims that they are not involved with trading with these malicious groups, but rather, they are trading with groups that possibly are trading with these malicious groups.
-Nintendo is reviewing their trading situation.
-Nintendo will in all likelihood change their stance and position to be more modeled after HP, Apple, Intel, and Microsoft in this regard. *this is my analysis, not a fact*
Pretty much everything I took from that article. Hopefully Nintendo (and all those other companies) can get this sorted out, figure out who to trade with, and continue to be smarter, more aware, and more in tune with their trading practices.