Intel has had quite the past with conflict materials.

Since 2009, Intel received a letter from the Enough

Project about that their minerals (Tungsten, tin, tantalum, and gold, 3TG), were being taken from the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). More specifically the minerals themselves were being taken
from miners, to trading houses, and to smelters in which made conflict minerals and regular minerals
utterly indistinguishable from other minerals. Since, Intel has made great strides in effort to ride
themselves of conflict minerals when compared to companies like Nintendo. However, when compared
to companies like Apple, there is a bigger difference.

Apple stands, or should stand, as what companies should aim for when it comes to conflict minerals.
When compared to the “Ranking of Responsible Electronics” list, published 2014, apple has made even
greater strides to entirely phase out conflict minerals altogether. In fact, in 2014 only 135 of it’s 225
SOR’s (smelters or refiners) were certified as conflict free. The next year, it saw a 100% participation in
the surveys of all of it’s SOR’s. Apple has gone so far as to remove suppliers who has not complied with
their surveys. In fact, the same “Enough Project” group named Apple the world’s top company for
responsible sourcing for non-conflict minerals.

In contrast, Nintendo stood at the bottom of the 2014 report. Since, Nintendo has strived to change how
their system works but still falls short. According to their 2015 report, Nintendo has increased to 72%
but since has only slightly increased. While this is a big step in the right direction, this lends to the fact
that the company doesn’t hold conflict materials in such high regard as they do profit. If relating this to
“CSV” Nintendo, unlike Apple, falls short of the triple bottom line. Of which holds the community equal
to profit. While their survey response has increased to 100%, there still is a lot to be seen in terms of
certification percentages.

When comparing the companies together, there is a much clearer picture of what can be done, what
has been done, and is currently being done. In terms of recent events, Apple has gone on to funding the
International Peace Information Service “IPIS” (an independent research institute that measured the
impact of the scrupulous mining industry while working with the Ulula LLC), and two other (currently)
unnamed organizations dedicated to ensuring traceability of the minerals. While Intel has since
manufactured conflict mineral free microprocessors, this still leaves a lot to be desired.

All in all, Intel still has a long way to go in terms of eliminating conflict minerals. While it has shown itself
to be able to identify which part of the supply chain is the pivotal point to preventing the sourcing of
these materials, it is still far from what it can be doing. As mentioned previously, Apple has gone above
and beyond, even enlisting government support at times when necessary.

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2016-09-08-nintendo-makes-progress-on-conflict-minerals-
sourcing

https://www.fastcompany.com/2682467/why-nintendo-is-being-targeted-for-using-conflict-minerals

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-06-19-apple-worlds-company-conflict-minerals

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2018-07-31-nintendo-barely-improves-conflict-minerals-
certainty-over-two-years
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/carolineodonovan/apple-reports-conflict-mineral-progress-as-
president-trump

https://9to5mac.com/2019/02/15/conflict-minerals-report/

https://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2019/02/apples-latest-conflict-minerals-report-details-
thier-ongoing-work-and-removal-of-five-non-compliant-smelters-and-refiners.html