Conflict Minerals

Addressing Forced Labor and Conflict Minerals in the Supply Chain: An Overview of the EU's 'Conflict Minerals' Regulation and ComplyMarket's Solutions for Due Diligence

The new EU 'Conflict Minerals' Regulation (2017/821) addresses the use of forced labour in mining minerals in politically unstable areas. These minerals, such as tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold, are often sold to finance illegal activities such as buying weapons, and they can find their way into our cell phones, cars, vehicles, and jewelry.

EU importers of these minerals are required to check what they are buying to ensure that they are not produced in a way that finances conflict or other related illegal practices. The Regulation requires importers to follow a five-stage framework laid out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in a document called 'Due Diligence Guidance for Supply Chains Responsible for Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas (OECD Guidance). These steps include:

• Establish strong company management systems
• Identifying and assessing risks in the supply chain
• design and implement a strategy to respond to identified risks
• conduct an independent third-party audit of supply chain due diligence
• Supporting annual reporting on supply chain due diligence

How ComplyMarket can help you:

ComplyMarket introduces ComplyDoC , the first open source cloud solution for intelligent IT and Supply Chain sustainability, chemical and product compliance Management, to collect information from suppliers. ComplyDoC can help with:

• Establish strong company management systems
• Identifying and assessing risks in the supply chain
• design and implement a strategy to respond to identified risks
• conduct an independent third-party audit of supply chain due diligence
• Supporting annual reporting on supply chain due diligence.