DRC case against Apple brings new hope in conflict minerals crisis

Melissa Chemam

3 January 2025 at 12:04 pm·1-min read

The town of Nyabibwe, eastern Congo, a once bustling outpost of artisanal mining.

As the DRC brings an unprecedented case against Apple, and the company offers assurances that it will no longer use conflict minerals from central Africa, experts are questioning whether real change is on the horizon in illegal mining.

The war over so-called "conflict minerals" is more than two decades old, but the fight to prevent their exploitation by global tech companies is much newer.

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), various armed groups – including both Congolese army and rival armed rebel groups, among them the M23 – occupy mines and trading routes, forcing miners to work for free.

Minerals from these mines, including tungsten, tin and tantalum (often referred to as the 3Ts), have been illegally smuggled through Rwanda for several years, and eventually exported to tech companies such as Apple, Tesla and Samsung.

But after the DRC filed criminal charges against Apple over the use of conflict minerals, there is renewed hope that this illegal mining could be brought to an end.

A criminal complaint was filed earlier in December against Apple's subsidiaries in France and Belgium, where the Congolese government alleges Apple uses conflict minerals laundered through international supply chains – which the American tech giant denies.

But, Kopp added, the regulations "are not sufficiently enforced, and I don’t think they’ve had a real impact on the ground".

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