Conflict Minerals

September 10, 2014 | Written by GreenSoft Technology, Inc.

List of known conflict minerals processing facilities published

September 10, 2014｜Written by GreenSoft Technology, Inc.

More than a year after their January 2013 deadline under the Dodd-Frank Act, the U.S. Department of Commerce has finally published a list of known conflict mineral processing facilities.

As required under Section 1502(d)(3)(C) of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Dodd-Frank Act), the department is required to list all known conflict mineral processing facilities worldwide.

The department's delay on releasing the list was due to the difficult nature of identifying such facilities - a challenge that we at GreenSoft Technology, Inc. and our customers are intimately familiar with. A September 8, 2014 Wall Street Journal article states "the inconclusive report underscores the challenges faced by hundreds of U.S. public companies that also had to comply with the rule and file reports on their efforts to discover conflict minerals in their supply chains.”

The list, published on September 5, 2014, identifies over 400 sites worldwide. But the Department of Commerce states in the report that it "does not have the ability to distinguish" which sites are being used to finance conflict and militia groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo and other countries.

Here at GreenSoft Technology, we are currently in the process of integrating the list into our GreenData Manager software program. The new data will be included in our GreenSoft Component Database, along with over 36 million part numbers from over 17,000 manufacturers worldwide, to provide a total compliance solution for manufacturers with the most current information available.