Conflict Minerals Initiative

The Conflict-Free Sourcing Initiative (CFSI) made a major accomplishment in its mission to fight the war on minerals deriving from human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. In the initiatives five year history, it has put forth hard work and effort to mitigate the consumption of raw materials being mined in the atrocities warfare in the Congo. Over 120 companies have worked with the program in hopes of gaining a transparent supply chain and partaking in international due diligence.  

CFSI’s Program Director, Michael Rohwer, announced, “This is a major milestone in the global effort to support an end to the conflict in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. For over five years, over 120 companies have worked together to identify and validate, via a rigorous audit, conflict-free smelters and refiners of tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold. The recent validation of the first conflict-free tungsten smelter by our audit means we can now provide companies with information on conflict-free smelters or refiners of all four conflict minerals. This information is vital to support companies to make responsible choices about conflict minerals sourcing.” The landmark comes at a crucial point in time for U.S. corporations facing Dodd-Frank 1502 and the necessity to comply with the regulation of sourcing conflict minerals. 

Companies that have begun the implementation of a conflict minerals program are discovering that complying with the rule is not as straightforward as expected due to a myriad of challenges: depth and complexity of global supply chains, language barriers, political obstacles, confidentiality concerns, supplier resistance, as well as the sensitive nature of the materials being traced.  

Source Intelligence has prepared an analysis of emerging best practices in Conflict Minerals compliance programs, to help affected “late-comer” companies evaluate their options and implement their own program.

To download the entire paper click HERE.