BSR Insight | Coalition Provides U.S. SEC With Recommendations on Conflict Minerals
About the Author(s)
Marshall Chase, Associate Director, Advisory Services
Publication Date
November 30, 2010
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A group of NGOs, investors, and companies—facilitated by BSR and led by AMD, the Enough Project, and As You Sow—has developed recommendations to guide the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) pending rulemaking on conflict minerals (defined as tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This rulemaking, mandated by the U.S. financial reform legislation passed in July, will require U.S.-listed companies to report if their products contain conflict minerals, which are so named because of the role of armed groups in mining and taxing their trade.
The final recommendations include guidance on:
- What constitutes a reliable supply chain due diligence process, including a company policy and risk-assessment procedures.
- Third-party auditing efforts, including identification of the mine of origin and documentation of payments to ensure that supply chains are DRC conflict mineral free.
- What companies should publicly disclose under different contexts. For example, what information a company with no, or minimal amounts of, conflict minerals in its supply chains should report.
To review the recommendations or to sign on, please contact Sasha Radovich.
For more information on conflict minerals, read our summary of the BSR Conference session on the topic and Marshall Chase's recent article on the Huffington Post.
About the Author(s)
Marshall Chase, Associate Director, Advisory Services
Marshall leads BSR’s work with manufacturing companies headquartered in the Americas, in addition to supporting BSR’s information and communications technology and transport & logistics practices... Read more →
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