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Nintendo finishes rock bottom of "conflict minerals" company rankings

Has made "no known effort to trace or audit its supply chain".

Family-friendly gaming company Nintendo has finished bottom of a "conflict minerals" ranking table.

Conflict minerals are those mined, in this case, in Congo. They are gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten. Armed groups fight to control the mines, and sell the produce to fund the ongoing and bloody Congolese conflict. Since 1996, more than 5.4 million lives have been lost to the conflict, and a further 2 million people displaced. Sheesh.

The 2012 Conflict Minerals Company Rankings and report were put together by the Enough Project as part of the Raise Hope for Congo campaign.

Nintendo's score - higher being better - was zero. Sony scored 27, Microsoft and Apple 38. Intel was the industry leader, with 60.

"Despite growing public awareness about this issue and significant industry movement, Nintendo has made no known effort to trace or audit its supply chain," the report claimed.

In a CNN story, Enough Project senior policy analyst Sasha Lezhnev was quoted as saying: "Nintendo is, I believe, the only company that has basically refused to acknowledge the issue or demonstrate they are making any sort of effort on it. And this is despite a good two years of trying to get in contact with them."

Nintendo responded to CNN, stating that it "outsources the manufacture and assembly of all Nintendo products to our production partners and therefore is not directly involved in the sourcing of raw materials that are ultimately used in our products.

"We nonetheless take our social responsibilities as a global company very seriously and expect our production partners to do the same."

A Nintendo spokesperson apparently declined to comment specifically on conflict minerals.