Market Data
August 7, 2015
Steel Buyers Basics: Conflict Materials Update
Written by Mario Briccetti
Last year I (Mario Briccetti) wrote an article in Steel Market Update on the subject of Conflict Materials. On August 4, the Wall Street Journal published a story on this subject, which started out by stating, “Hundreds of US Public companies are coming up short as they face a deadline to reveal whether their supply chains contain even trace amounts of minerals linked to violence in Africa.” I thought it would be a good time to write an update.
A provision of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act requires publicly traded companies to disclose the source of certain minerals (conflict minerals). Sales of these minerals are used to finance the operations of violent militia groups (often using slave labor). Dodd-Frank seeks to remove the US market for these minerals – specifically gold, cassiterite (the ore for tin), columbite-tantalite (tantalum) and wolframite (tungsten) – by forcing companies that use these minerals to disclosure their sources.
