Chip Industry Not Ready for U.S. Conflict Minerals Law

The new law will go in effect in July 2014 and requires data, declarations, or documentation about the presence of certain minerals in their supply chain.

The law defines conflict minerals as those including gold; columbite-tantalite, used to produce tantalum; cassiterite, used to make tin; and wolframite, which used to produce tungsten. According to the IHS, the minerals are widely used in products ranging from "cellphones to hearing aids, to pacemakers and jet engines." IHS estimates that $93 million worth of tantalum was used in smartphones in 2012 alone.

The new law requires companies to disclose whether they use conflict minerals in their products and what efforts have been made to ensure that the use or purchase of the minerals have not caused and do not contribute to violence and killings. The Democratic Republic of the Congo is especially concerning as it is estimated to hold about $24 trillion worth of minerals, as well as adjacent countries.

The 11.3 percent of companies that have complied so far represent about 17.1 percent of active electronic components on the market, IHS said.

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  • nieur
    what next does US have plans to invade in congo now?
    Reply
  • x4dm
    Once again, Intel has already taken the lead in corporate responsibility
    http://www.intel.com/content/dam/doc/policy/policy-conflict-minerals.pdf
    Reply
  • A Bad Day
    Good luck determining which are conflict and non-conflict minerals. Some bribery is all it takes to get the preferred ID.
    Reply
  • Achoo22
    This article fails for never explaining what an IHS is.
    Reply
  • deksman
    These morons should be creating electronics from superior synthetic materials that can be made in abundance (which was doable for a long time). The amount of patenting superior synthetic materials, means of production and usage in electronics (which in turn would create orders of magnitude more advanced technology) dating back decades is very large - and yet, we don't really use them.
    Why?
    Oh wait... that's right... we have an economy based on artificially induced scarcity and monetary gain/profit.
    Producing abundance is a big 'no' for the industry (and since we already do, most of it will be destroyed to create artificially induced scarcity - which is done with food for example).

    Reply
  • Achoo22This article fails for never explaining what an IHS is.
    A simple search would easily explain...
    Reply
  • lmlim
    who ever submit the information or adhere to this "law" is an IDIOT. US is trying to acquire this knowledge, but say it as a law of same kind. seemed like industrial spies activities to me, if you will... but renamed/manipulated...

    anyone see this?
    Reply
  • kcorp2003
    china doesn't comply. goes buys the minerals then sells it back to the US companies 10x more ;) conflict free.

    but wow $24 trillion dollar worth of minerals!
    Reply
  • twisted politiks
    toxtethA simple search would easily explain...
    A simple search for IHS returns a lot of different information, none of which stands out as to what "IHS" this article is talking about.

    Achoo22This article fails for never explaining what an IHS is.
    They are talking about a company who deals with information.

    http://www.ihs.com/
    Reply
  • frombehind
    oh well, here comes the $2,000 iPhone 6
    Reply