Some consumers of tantalite and tungsten concentrate have stopped buying material from the African Great Lakes region owing to a recognition dispute between two due diligence organisations — the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) and the International Tin Supply Chain Initiative (ITSCI).
ITSCI is a widely used raw materials traceability and due diligence scheme for the 3T conflict minerals — tungsten, tantalum and tin — within the African Great Lakes region. RMI looks further downstream and audits smelters and processors to verify that they source 3T materials from conflict-free supply chains.
Since November 2022, ITSCI has not been recognised as an approved upstream due diligence system by RMI and smelters must carry out further due diligence in order to pass the RMI's Responsible Minerals Assurance Programme (RMAP) assessment. RMI has said it will offer specialised assistance to smelters that use ITSCI for their upstream sourcing ahead of their 2024 RMAP assessments.
But because of the lack of synchronicity between the two organisations, smelters will have to do additional work to confirm that the material they are buying is conflict free, making purchasing material from the Great Lakes area more difficult, especially as the majority of this material is being sourced from informal or artisanal mines.
Although some Chinese smelters continue to buy from the region, other consumers have pulled back from the market entirely and are waiting for a resolution that was expected in 2023 but has yet to happen. Market participants are increasingly concerned and are calling for an immediate solution.
Some major buyers have already confirmed that they will not renew long-term contracts for purchasing material from the area until ITSCI is fully recognised by RMI. "We won't source from the region. It's pretty terrible thinking about the impact on the communities but that's where the two organisations have driven us to," a buyer told Argus.
Negotiations hit stalemate
RMI removed ITSCI from its list of approved upstream due diligence organisations in November 2022 for not completing an alignment assessment with the OECD.
In January 2023, ITSCI agreed to meet a list of conditions, including completing an alignment assessment with the OECD. ITSCI completed the assessment in June 2023, but the organisations could not agree on recognition.
RMI requested further action and information from ITSCI in September 2023, including a request that ITSCI commission three independent observations of mine site assessments, but received no response before the end of the 2023 transition period. The RMI also requested more information regarding Eastern DRC, given the current context of serious risks and conflict-affected minerals production and trade in North Kivu.
"[The disagreement] is bad for everyone," a tantalite trader said. "There is a risk that ITSCI products may become unmarketable, and this will impact tens of thousands of artisanal miners and, of course, traders with stock or prepayments, as well as smelters who need feedstock. Everyone is a loser."
