Robert Hormats, U.S. Under Secretary of State for economic, energy, and agriculture affairs, said on a panel June 20 that the debate surrounding conflict minerals is "one of the most significant moral issues of our time."

The DRC supplies dozens of electronics companies around the word with the minerals needed to manufacture products like iPhones and video games. The DRC is the fifth largest supplier of tin ore, and according to a U.S. Geological Survey, about 10 percent of tungsten--the mineral used to make cell phones vibrate--is imported to the United States.

"It really is a global problem," said Tim Mohin, director of corporate responsibility, Advanced Micro Devices--a company that develops computer processors for commercial and consumer markets. "We have global supply chains that affect every nation, every product that you buy."

In the past, several companies claimed they used conflict-free minerals. But experts say it would have been nearly impossible to track supply chains without the implementation of a systemized auditing system like the one now required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

"What part of the solution has to be is to come up with an incentive system so that when companies do the right thing, when they work with the Congo to develop a free trade, fair trade system in the Congo, that they are rewarded," Mohin said.

In July of 2010, President Obama signed the Dodd-Frank Act, requiring U.S.-listed companies to disclose whether the minerals used in their products were extracted in the DRC or a neighboring country.

But critics of the legislation argue that there is still no real way to determine whether the minerals used in the products are clean because they switch hands too often on the way to the market.

Leaders from the Enough Project, a nonprofit focusing on the areas affected by the Lord's Resistance Army, want a clearer, more defined approach to combating the use of conflict minerals.

Their solution: a certification system that would force governments to use an agreed-upon standard when trading the minerals.

Several certification systems already exist throughout the world. The Kimberly Process certifies the origin of rough diamonds from areas that have conflict-free diamond production. The process aims to prevent "blood diamonds." Fair Trade assures a consumer that the producers of a product get a fair price and fair labor conditions.

DRC mine owners have already begun to see the affects of increased regulation. On May 23, Bloomberg reported that sales of tin ore from the DRC's North Kivu province fell more than 90 percent in the month of April.

"The private sector has been obliged to lay off people because they are not allowed to export," Frida Mitifu, the DRC ambassador to the United States, said. "We really need to find a quick solution otherwise this God-given potential that God put in the DRC might truly turn into some kind of curse."