Much of the violence has been financed with profits from the mining of metals such as tin, coltan, tantalum and gold - all used in electronic appliances.
Intel's goal is to demonstrate that its microprocessors are validated as conflict-free for tantalum by the end of 2012, and to manufacture the world's first microprocessor fully validated as conflict-free across all four minerals (gold, tantalum, tin and tungsten) by the end of 2013.