Mining misery: Valuable natural resources are at the root of the violence in the DRC, many experts argue. The country has been cursed with gold, diamonds, zinc, and coltan, and everyone from local militias to foreign corporations to the Chinese government wants to get rich extracting them. Coltan has received special attention in recent times because it is a key input in cellphones and laptops. Here, workers pass buckets of mud and stones at a gold mine in the Ituri region of northeast DRC on June 18, 2003.