Hi Sarah, not sure if you saw the newest press about this but about 90% of all Central African tin is now considered conflict-free. Specific figures aren't available for tantalum but it's estimated that 40-50% of the world's entire tantalum output now passes through iTSCi, which is the only internationally-accepted conflict-free assurance system in operation (others are trying to come on board but it's slow-going). Maybe this is worth updates to your piece? Continued advocacy is important but it's also really important to acknowledge field-level programs that are actually putting miners back to work. Pact (www.pactworld.org/mining) is the lead implementer of iTSCi, which is an industry created initiative. We work with 80,000 miners on 800 3T mine sites in DRC, Rwanda, and Burundi here:  http://goxi.org/xn/detail/5786733:BlogPost:84527?xg_source=activity  (also on our Pact website: http://www.pactworld.org/sites/default/files/unconflicted.pdf). Initiatives in gold are being piloted in DRC by others, FYI. We aren't yet working with that material in the Great Lakes (though we work on it elsewhere). 

Best wishes, Cristina