In another startling announcement at the CES keynote, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich trumpeted that starting this year, all of his company's microprocessors will be “conflict free.”

The chief executive is referring to the fact that a handful of raw minerals are crucial for manufacturing a significant portion of all consumer electronic devices. As we reported in 2012, for years, many activists around the world have pushed for tougher restrictions on the sourcing of cassiterite, wolframite, coltan, and gold in particular. The proceeds of the sales of many of these minerals have been fueling regional conflicts in Central Africa for well over a decade.

Krzanich noted that the company has been working on this issue since “over four years ago," and that now all of its minerals are "tracked" from "mine to the smelter."

“The solution wasn't easy,” he said. “The minerals are important, our industry relies on them, but not as important as the lives of people mining them.”

While the move might seem like a PR coup for Intel—indeed it’s the first major tech company we’re aware of to announce such a conscientious plan—the company is not necessarily doing it solely out of the goodness of its heart. In 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission voted to approve new rules that would require American companies to publicly disclose whether they use "conflict minerals" originating from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or neighboring countries.

Under the new rules, companies would be required to conduct a "reasonable" inquiry to determine the provenance of such minerals and report those findings to the SEC and to the public on the company’s website.

According to the SEC, companies will be required to file their first such report on May 31, 2014 (for the previous year) and annually on that date every year after.