With the Eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo being a rich source of the so-called Three Ts – Tantalum, Tin and Tungsten – and these minerals having been used to finance the civil war in the region, “conflict minerals” are a hot-button issue. The 2010 Dodd-Frank financial reform law and respective rules handed down by the SEC in 2012 meant to address the issue of U.S. companies sourcing materials from the conflict region, but the associated disclosure requirements have created much confusion among companies using these metals – at all levels of the supply chain.

Our friends at MetalMiner – also the authors of a white paper on building responsible manufacturing supply chains in the context of conflict minerals — held an event on May 6 in Chicago aimed at clearing up much of the confusion, which was another reason we thought May would be a good month to feature the “Three T’s” on our blog.

Post conference coverage is already available at www.agmetalminer.com and and Metal Miner’s partner site www.spendmatters.com, including discussion of Lawrence Heim’s (Director of The Elm Consulting Group International) presentation offering some practical strategies and approaches for conflict minerals compliance.

Friends of American Resources won’t be surprised to hear us suggest one possible alternative to the difficulties of conflict metals compliance: Development of at least tantalum and tungsten deposits in the U.S. would be a terrific way to help manufacturing companies go “conflict-free.”