Conflict minerals

More than environmental challenges: politics and crime

The Conflict Mineral legal frameworks is intended to support the international efforts to reduce trading in minerals sourced from conflict areas (called ‘conflict minerals’). It primarily requires companies that buy products containing Tin, Tungsten, Tantalum or Gold (often called as 3TG) to report on the procurement source of these minerals. In 2010, the US Congress passed the ‘Dodd-Frank Act’, with rules requiring SEC listed companies to disclose whether they use conflict minerals in their products. They need to declare this by determining whether any level in their supply chain utilized minerals which originated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the adjoining countries. Additionally, starting January 2021, a new law applies across the EU – the ‘Conflict Minerals Regulation (EU) 2017/821’, to check if the imports into EU are from a responsible supply chain of minerals and not from conflict-affected and high-risk areas.