Dodd-Frank 1502: Impact Update
Publisher: Enough Project
Date: 2016
Topics: Extractive Resources
Countries: Congo (DRC)
Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank 1502) and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) Conflict Minerals Rule have improved global minerals supply chain transparency and begun to help break links between the minerals trade and violent conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (Congo).
For nearly two decades, illicit mining and minerals trafficking – primarily in tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold (“3TG”) – have provided significant financing to a range of armed groups as well as corrupt and abusive elements of the Congolese army. Minerals were not among the initial causes of Congo’s armed conflict, but they have fueled many of the groups that have perpetrated serious crimes there. The ties between illicit mining and violence are also distinctly regional in nature. Smuggling, trafficking, and illegal minerals taxation in Congo and the region implicate authorities and criminal networks in neighboring countries including Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi.