{"id":854,"date":"2012-12-15T09:20:47","date_gmt":"2012-12-15T14:20:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.juniorminingnews.com\/?p=854"},"modified":"2012-12-15T09:20:47","modified_gmt":"2012-12-15T14:20:47","slug":"conflict-continues-in-resource-rich-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=854","title":{"rendered":"Conflict continues in resource rich Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By Lucas Eaves<br \/>\n<\/strong><em>Independent Voter Network<\/em><\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-855\" title=\"congomin160\" src=\"http:\/\/www.juniorminingnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/congomin160.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"160\" height=\"179\" \/>Over the past few months, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been in the spotlight because an armed rebel group, M23, took control of the regional capital of Goma. It is the latest reminder of the instability in a region that will become more important in the years to come.<\/p>\n<p>The DRC is one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources but is classified as the poorest country in the world by the International Monetary Fund. Congo mining resources are estimated to be worth $24 trillion and include the biggest gold reserves in the world, five percent of the world\u2019s copper, fifty percent of the world\u2019s cobalt, diamonds, oil, tar, and uranium.<\/p>\n<p>However, it\u2019s because of its immense reserves of mineral used in tech industries that Congo\u2019s strategic importance for the world will rise in the coming years. Congo possesses an estimated eighty percent of the world\u2019s supply of coltan, when refined as tantalum, is a vital component of computers, personal electronics, and mobile phones. The significance of this mineral can be illustrated by the fact that a shortage of coltan led to an abrupt halt in the sales of the popular Sony Playstation 2.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/ivn.us\/2012\/12\/14\/mineral-conflict-in-congo\" target=\"_blank\">Read the full article . . .<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Over the past few months, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been in the spotlight because an armed rebel group, M23, took control of the regional capital of Goma.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[9,32],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}