At the start of this year, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich announced that Intel is now manufacturing and shipping conflict-free microprocessors. Conflict minerals are insidious. Rebels in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) commit human rights atrocities and crimes to mine them. The ones critical to electronics are tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold. These minerals get hidden in many of the products we buy as they pass into the supply chain from smelters.
After that, they are very difficult for manufacturers to identify, much less eliminate. Over the last five years, Intel has taken the lead in addressing this issue and it’s quite a detective story. Listen in on a conversation with Intel’s Jackie Sturm, VP of Technology & Manufacturing Group and GM of Global Sourcing & Procurement, as we discuss how they approached solving this problem.
