Companies Must Use Their Buying Power To Bring Change To The DRC

With the passing of section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was given hope that an end to armed conflict in the mining communities would someday be a reality.  The deadliest war on earth is located in the DRC and is funded by corporations buying tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold (3TG) from mines run by rebel groups.  The law forces U.S. based publicly traded companies to source their supply chains to find out if their products contain any of the conflict minerals.  When they file their reports in May of 2014 it will become public knowledge which companies are using conflict minerals in their supply chains.

Now it may be a companies first reaction to stop buying 3TG from the DRC to avoid the backlash from consumers, but not only is it hard to find the minerals elsewhere, it would be detrimental to the region to flee. Instead of leaving, these companies must buy from smelters that use mines that are traceable and considered conflict free. There are already mines in the region that are using a “bag and tag” method to give visibility to where and when the ore was mined. Only purchasing from these mines will force other mines in the region to become conflict free, increasing the supply.

The start of this chain reaction is the sourceing of a companies supply chain to find out if in fact the minerals that they are using in their products come from conflicted mines in the DRC. To do this many companies are turning to Source Intelligence to first perform the due diligence, asses the data and then prepare their conflict minerals report.  They are the only company with the total solution to conflict minerals compliance. Their analytics platform along with their Supplier Engagement Team, engages suppliers, collects, verifies and assesses conflict minerals related data and generates the required forms and reports needed to comply with the SEC's final rule.

To see a personalized demonstration of what Source Intelligence's platform can do for your company, click HERE