Have you heard about Conflict Minerals? If you’re a manufacturer or contract manufacturer and use the following materials (Tantalum, Tin, Tungsten or gold) within the assemblies that you manufacture either through the components used in the build or within the build process itself, then you will soon hear about this topic if you haven’t yet.
Conflict Minerals, sometimes called “3TG” for Tantalum, Tin, Tungsten and Gold, are minerals that are mined in conditions of armed conflict and human rights abuses, originating from the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, by the Congolese National Army and various armed rebel groups in this region.
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act and the SEC require that all publicly traded companies report and make public the use of these conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or adjourning countries in their products. The requirements will also affect companies not publicly traded as well, as these requirements will be pushed down through the entire supply chain.
Companies will need to file Conflict Minerals Reports on an SD Form by May 31st of each year reporting data from January to December, with the first report due on May 31, 2014 covering January– December 2013.
Contract manufacturers like Columbia Tech will be required to support their customers in this Conflict Minerals reporting effort by informing their suppliers of this requirement, if they have not already been informed, and requiring its suppliers to report to Columbia Tech if the products they supply us include minerals from the conflict region and, in turn, we will need to report these findings to our customers.
Columbia Tech strives to be ahead of the curve on all new requirements in the industry in an effort to be compliant and fully support our customers and the products we provide them.
More detailed information, and the latest information regarding the requirements for Conflict Minerals, can be found through several websites; two are listed below for your reference.
Eric Skoglund
Quality Control Manager/Management Rep
Columbia Tech
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