SHANGHAI, Feb. 12 -- ITRI, together with a representative of the Ministry of Mines of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), recently held three days of meetings in London in order to finalise implementation details for Phase 2 of the ITRI Tin Supply Chain Initiative (iTSCi) on due diligence and cassiterite traceability. Considerable progress was made on planning of the project and a pilot trial is now envisaged to commence in key locations in North and South Kivu during March/April 2010 - although this is subject to finalisation of the necessary funding for the project.

The DRC Ministry representative is working closely with ITRI on the project and provided a number of key pieces of information for the discussions, including a list of mines sites either controlled by the DRC Government, or by other groups. A report was also given of the International Task Force meeting hosted by the DRC Government in Kinshasa during the previous week, where continuing co-operation with both ITRI and the OECD on due diligence tools were included in the meeting recommendations.

The meetings included discussions with government representatives, those in the tin supply chain and other industry group associations. As a result, the Tantalum and Niobium Information Centre (TIC) may be expected to join the iTSCi scheme, which would then be expanded to include coltan traceability in the pilot trial.