In Africa, battles over natural resources spill into the tech space. Some minerals, necessary for high-tech devices, are dubbed “conflict minerals” when that’s the case; in 2010, the U.S. government began to regulate conflict mineral use, requiring companies to audit their suppliers to help curb their inclusion in products from U.S. companies.
That hasn’t diminished their possible inclusion in devices sold by a wide range of video game industry powerhouses from Nintendo to Apple and Disney, GamesIndustry.biz reports in an exhaustive new look at the topic.
Companies that avoid conflict minerals can be certified by the Conflict Free Sourcing Initiative, or CSFI, an industry group.
Here are a few quick facts that GI.biz dug up:
Of Microsoft’s 276 suppliers, 83 are compliant with the CFSI standards
214 of Sony’s suppliers (of an unknown number) responded to its queries; 171 were compliant
Of Nintendo’s 247 suppliers, 168 were compliant
Of Apple’s 225 suppliers, 135 are compliant
It’s worth noting that a lack of compliance doesn’t necessarily suggest conflict minerals are present; however, it does suggest that these companies simply don’t know the provenance of their materials.
There’s a lot more data in the GamesIndustry article, including details of surveys Disney did into its supply chain — which include findings that 22 of its suppliers used conflict minerals.