The mineral extraction contributed to severe economic, social, and environmental impacts, the reason why they are called conflict minerals. The conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has claimed millions of lives since it began in the late 1990s. The mining facilities cause deforestation, damage land-use practices, and create rampant soil, water, and air pollution. These, in turn, affect local agriculture and limit economic opportunities in the region.
The DRC government announced that Congo would start processing all its raw mineral resources to tackle this. This stops the country’s minerals from being processed outside Africa. This was possible due to securing enough workforces to implement various works and modernize factories to the world standard. The government introduced a policy to procure high-tech equipment to process minerals into high finished products. The DRC government hopes to be a good example so that other African countries will follow and process their minerals.
