Conflict Minerals: For Conflict Minerals and Resource Extraction Disclosures, the End Appears Nigh

Feb 1, 2017 | Kristyn Hyland, Bureau of National Affairs
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Acting Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Michael Piwowar took the first steps toward scaling back the conflict mineral disclosure rule Jan. 31, directing the SEC staff to reconsider the agency’s guidance on the rule. The rule requires companies and foreign private issuers in the U.S. to report their use of so-called “conflict minerals”—gold, tantalum, tin and tungsten from the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjacent countries—if those minerals are “necessary” to a product made by the companies. The SEC adopted the rule in August 2012 as required by Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act.