Our friends at Resource Consulting Services (RCS) have released their latest newsletter with interesting and valuable information on a range of natural resource policy issues, including updates on the Conflict Free Tin Initiative and their views from Mining Inadaba 2013. View the newsletter here.
Read more →Anyone who has been involved with SEC’s conflict minerals regulations for any amount of time is well aware of its confusing nature, overly complex and labyrinthine sentences and significant substantive ambiguities. Among these, two matters seem to be rising to the top in popularity – due to the sweeping nature of the applicability: Is packaging within the scope of the regulation as something that is “necessary to the functionality or production” of a product? In some cases, packaging may serve little more than a product container to convey the product to the market or consumer in a convenient manner. In other cases, packaging could be seen as preventing the degradation of the product, and therefore arguably contributing to its functionality. Is organotin – as well as other non-metallic forms of 3TG – considered a different/specific “derivative” of cassiterite that is not intended to be regulated in the same manner as the specifically-named derivative “tin”? In the preamble of the final rule (77 Fed. Reg. 56284 – 56285), SEC addressed the matter of organotin without bringing full clarity to their views on the matter. There may – or may not – a glimmer of insight into the Commission’s potential interpretation on these two topics. Take
Read more →One of the more common questions we hear from companies on the topic of conflict minerals is “Are we behind the curve?” Every company faces their own challenges in understanding the requirments, assessing their needs and implementing programmatic changes. But there are a number of common guideposts that provide reasonable indications on general progress – and shed light on whether your company is falling behind. So, in an unabashed take-off of Jeff Foxworthy’s “You Might be a Redneck If…”, we offer the following. If any of these sound familiar, then it is probably time to pick up the pace. Second quarter is fast approaching and one consistent trend has emerged for companies who are immersed in this right now - this process takes more time, and is more complex, than it seems. It is valuable to ensure you have as much time as possible in 2013 to make key decisions, gather data and develop processes to support SEC reporting or customer information requests. You might be falling behind on conflict minerals if… You had not heard the term “conflict minerals” before the first of this year. Customer information requests on conflict minerals are piling up unanswered. Your company has not established
Read more →Last week, OECD made available the complete final report on downstream company pilot program implementation of its conflict minerals due diligence framework. We have not completed our review and summary, but the report can be downloaded for free here. Of particular initial interest to many may be: the illustrative list of products (page 12) key trends (pages 15-18) learnings and recommendations from pilot participants (pages 60-64). Among the recommendations is one that Elm has voiced for two years: that the audit/auditor standards be upgraded from the generic ISO19011. However, the recommendation references ISO/IEC 17021, which brings its own unique concerns and challenges. list of 3T smelters (pages 70-75). It is important to understand that this list does not include gold refiners, nor is the list exhaustive or limited to ”approved” or “certified” smelters. We hope to have additional analysis and insights available soon.
Read more →Elm has been selected by The Auditing Roundtable to lead their newly formed Working Group to develop a professional auitdor guidance intended for use by non-CPAs in applying the “generally accepted government auditing standards” (also known as “GAGAS” or the Yellow Book) to audits of Conflict Minerals Reports under SEC’s conflict minerals regulations. Lawrence Heim, CPEA, Director of Elm’s Conflict Minerals services: ”The Board of Directors agreed to take on the challenge of developing this guidance, and doing so as rapidly as possible to serve the regulated community. I am honored that the Board asked me to play a role in that process.” Heim continued: “Given the importance, visibility and global impact of of this guidance, the Board recognizes how critical broad-based input and consensus will be. The Working Group’s first order of business is to present to the Board for their approval two lists: one of recommended professional peer reviewers and one of organizations/entities from whom input will be sought as stakeholders.” The Working Group will hold its first meeting in conjunction with the Roundtable’s national meeting in San Diego January 28-30, 2013. Elm has been a vocal proponent of strong auditing and auditor qualification/independence standards in the conflict
Read more →Elm announces CM CheckPointSM, a new rapid and highly cost-effective conflict minerals program assessment method/deliverable to be available late January 2013. CM CheckPointSM is intended for companies who have already begun program development or implementation and are looking for high-level “navigation checks” – rather than deep dives – from a third party to confirm strategic direction, alignment with SEC regulations and/or project status. Features of CM CheckPointSM include: Assesses from a high-level perspective practices/status/available documentation against the three-step process for SEC regulatory compliance (plus reporting/auditing) and the 5-step process of OECD Due Diligence framework and related supplements Reviews from a high-level perspective the framework, strategy, procedures, and generalized level of implementation at the company’s corporate level Topic/element/task general completion status indicators of Complete, Partially Complete, Not Started, Not Applicable Severity rankings for identified gaps/deficiencies reflecting potential importance to program implementation or potential audit outcome Can be used to confirm site-level program implementation/consistency with corporate expectations Automated summary report generation on-site with intuitive visual indicators Comment fields for each topic and sub-element allow highlighting of relevant data, findings or limitations encountered Minimal disruption – requires a single Elm assessor and only a few days on site, including on-site summary reporting Evolutionary steps in
Read more →With 2013 looming, the past 2 months have been a whirl of meetings, conference calls, proposals, RFP development support and project work. Through all that, a few questions companies are asking in this regard are becoming almost universal. A handful of these questions and thoughts specific to SEC regulatory compliance are below. We hope you will find these informative and helpful. How far back in the supply chain do I need to go? The preamble to the final rule makes it clear that issuers may satisfy the Reasonable Country of Origin Inquiry obtaining and relying on representations from the company’s direct (Tier 1) suppliers. However, you must have reason to believe the representations are true and additional efforts may be required to either (a) identify/monitor “applicable warning signs or other circumstances” indicating that materials may originate from Covered Countries or are not scrap, or (b) confirm the accuracy/credibility of information from those suppliers. How can I be comfortable relying on information provided to me by my suppliers? This is a difficult question but one that should be approached with an attitude of what auditors call “professional skepticism”. For example, one company recently released a letter to its customers clearly stating that
Read more →Respected law firm Cooley LLP has published an overview of the latest documents (filed November 21) in the legal challenge to SEC’s final conflict minerals regulations. These filings provide more detail about the technical and legal arguments to be brought against the US government in the case. The filings can be accessed here and here and Cooley’s article is here. The filings state that SEC has agreed to an expedited “briefing schedule” for their purposes, with final briefs to be filed by March 29, 2013 in an attempt to “ensure that outstanding uncertainty about the validity of the Rule and the statute will be resolved as soon as feasible.” We expect that SEC’s plans for issuing interpretive guidance on the rule may be delayed until after the March briefing is concluded. And in a closely-related development, Amnesty International announced that they filed a petition to “intervene to defend new regulations that require corporations to investigate and disclose whether their sourcing practices finance armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC)… the organization, which is represented by Public Citizen Litigation Group, has filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit so that it can help defend the regulations.”
Read more →A leading industry association in the electronics sector has published a draft of its conflict minerals due diligence best practices guideline. IPC – The Association Connecting Electronics Industries© – has made available IPC-1081 for comment. IPC is accepting comments from non-members and industries/companies beyond their membership, but only those who are “qualified participants” in the standard development process may cast votes. IPC’s standards development procedure is parallel to the ANSI standard development process; therefore IPC standards – once finally approved by ANSI – become ANSI standards as well. To access the document, click here. Click on the “+” next to Drafts, then click on the link that appears. A file will download that includes the draft standard and the official form that is to be used for submitting comments to IPC. Comments submitted in a manner other than this form may not be considered.
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