Thai firm's Congo tin exit seen as setback

       The decision by the Thai unit of Amalgamated Metals Corp to halt tin purchases from the Democratic Republic of Congo may wreck a plan to limit revenue reaching armed groups, according to the tin industry group ITRI.
       Thailand Smelting & Refining, the top buyer of tin from Congo, announced the suspension of tin ore purchases last week, citing the threat of misleading and bad publicity for any company that participates in the trade.
       That decision may jeopardise an ITRI initiative to certify the origin of tin shipments from Africa's top producer.
       "With the withdrawal of AMC, we're not sure we can implement the project,"ITRI sustainability manager Kay Nimmo said yesterday from St Albans, England.
       UN reports say profits from tin,columbo-tantalite and gold production in the eastern provinces of North and South Kivu help stoke the armed violence in Congo, where conflict has killed more than 5 million people since 1998. The tin is excavated by hand-diggers and mostly shipped to Asian smelters, before it is used in consumer electronics.
       Congo produced 15,500 tonnes of tin,or about 6% of world output, last year.
       Thailand Smelting & Refining, which said it would honour existing commit-ments, buys about half of Congo's tin exports, spokesman James MacFarlane said last week.
       AMC's exit follows the pullout of another major buyer, Traxys SA, in June.
       "The Congolese state lives fromminerals. The economy will be practically paralysed," North Kivu Mines Minister Juvenal Ndabereye said.
       A report by Global Witness, which accused companies of buying tin from traders with links to armed groups, spotlighted the need for initiatives such as ITRI's, said Ms Nimmo, who acknowledged there had been threats of sanctions against companies.