Conflict Minerals: Gold Chains

Aug 4, 2014 | Mark Hay, The New Yorker
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A little-known provision of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act requires companies using gold, tantalum, tin, and tungsten to file reports that disclose the origins of the metals with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The intent is to determine whether any of their materials came from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or its neighbors. It’s understood that American manufacturers, especially electronics companies, likely use minerals from rebel-controlled mines in the D.R.C., and lawmakers and activists hope the filings will reduce the flow of Congolese metals into the United States. But, in June, the filings came with a surprise that didn’t have anything to do with the D.R.C.: of the more than twelve hundred companies that filed reports, sixty-seven listed the Central Bank of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, historically both a gold smelter and reserve holder, as a potential link in their gold supply chains, including Deere & Co., Hewlett-Packard, I.B.M., Ralph Lauren, and Williams-Sonoma.