Can Businesses Police the Behaviour of Global Suppliers?

Jun 1, 2016 | Ken Fireman
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A group of activists wanted to shine a spotlight on the opaque supply chain that provides raw materials for cellphones. What they discovered was just how difficult that can be.

The supply chain for consumer electronics is one of the least transparent in the world. Each cellphone chip comes from a different supplier, and the raw materials that go into the chips include gold, tungsten, tin and tantalum. All can be “conflict minerals” – financing instruments of the brutal civil conflict that has ravaged the Democratic Republic of Congo, one of the source countries.