60 Minutes Takes On Congo's Conflict Minerals

Posted by Laura Heaton on Nov 29, 2009

After an eventful trip to eastern Congo in June and many months in production, an all-new segment called CONGO GOLD aired on CBS’ 60 Minutes tonight. Visit our special conflict minerals mini-site to learn about what you can do to end the suffering in the Congo.

Enough’s John Prendergast traveled to war-torn region with the 60 Minutes film crew to investigate and capture on camera the connection between the mining of gold and other precious minerals in eastern Congo and the violence that has contributed to the deaths of over 4.5 million people in the past decade.

Here’s how John Prendergast described their trip in an op-ed for the Boston Globe:

Being held at gunpoint by 30 drunk and angry militia in the middle of the night on a deserted road in one of the most dangerous war zones in the world was not our plan when we started out the day. But my traveling companions and I were digging into the links between the illicit mining of Congo's "conflict minerals'' and a deadly war, and we didn't expect a walk in the park. We had visited a gold mine contested by some particularly vengeful armed groups, and this militia had lost out in controlling the mine and wasn't happy about the result. After hours of negotiations, guns poked into ribs, and death threats, we emerged relatively unscathed and $1,000 poorer. Congolese civilians, however, are rarely so fortunate.

For 41 years, 60 Minutes has been telling the world's most compelling stories in 12-minute segments, educating generations of families and expanding their horizons. Tonight millions learnt about the deadliest war in the world deep in the jungles of Central Africa and our own links to it.

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Submitted by Rick (not verified) on November 30, 2009 - 6:06pm.

Jewelry industry professionals comment about the 60 Minutes story on conflict gold. Not as compassionate as you would think. http://tiny.cc/6lJGW

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Submitted by Laura Heaton on November 30, 2009 - 3:11pm.

Thanks to all of you for tuning in last night. Conscientious consumers really do have the power to help change the course of the conflict in eastern Congo, so it's fantastic to see people taking the initiative to call out the companies that, knowingly or not, are helping fuel the violence. (Props to you, Kumar.) Our special conflict minerals page suggests some meaningful steps for consumers and activists to take. Check it out: http://bit.ly/8jfcBt

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Submitted by Ashley (not verified) on November 30, 2009 - 10:05am.

Great segment on 60 Minutes last night... Thanks Enough team for all your hard work!

60 Minute report

Submitted by Kumar (not verified) on November 30, 2009 - 4:28am.

I want to thank all the involved parties for the amazing report on 60 minutes- I have already written a letter to Wal-Mart that I will not shop at their store until they can certify the "source of origin" of the gold that they sell.

Thanks to 60 Minutes for

Submitted by Six Flags Parks (not verified) on November 30, 2009 - 12:47am.

Thanks to 60 Minutes for putting the DR-Congo in the news. The War is a real one and it did cause the death of more than 5 Millions. It is not just fueled by gold but also by diamonds, Coltan (Colombo Tantalum), gold and a few other resources. It is the responsibility of Africans to hold their leaders accountable so that such situation does not happen again but democracy in Africa is very young and not understood by the majority so it will take time. As consumers in the west we need to make our corporation accountable for the things they sell us, just like Nike was in trouble for using child labor in Asia we need to know where the gold we purchase comes from. We need to put processes in place so that it is hard for diamond, gold coming from war torn areas to reach the market. I hope that the 60 Minutes report will expose the companies that purchase the natural resources in war torn areas.