Section 1502 of the US Dodd-Frank Act deals with conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or neighboring countries and explicitly names tungsten, tantalum, gold and tin, among others, which play a particularly important role in electronic devices and assemblies. Companies listed on the US stock exchange are obliged by the Dodd-Frank Act to disclose whether conflict minerals are used in their products and, if so, whether these originate from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or neighboring countries. The EICC (Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition) and the GeSI (Global e-Sustainability Initiative) are calling on companies to take reasonable care when selecting suppliers to ensure that none of the substances listed in the Dodd-Frank Act are sourced from these regions.
ACI Analytical Control Instruments GmbH supports the initiatives of the EICC and GeSI. In particular, we support the demand of the ZVEI (German Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers' Association) to make the origin of the metals documentable by certifying the metal smelting companies so that all downstream processors can work with reasonable effort in the sense of avoiding conflict raw materials.
Suppliers of materials used in the manufacture of our products (in particular gold and tin) must confirm that they understand and support the fundamental efforts of the EICC and GeSI and do not knowingly source conflict minerals.
We therefore expect our suppliers to make appropriate efforts when selecting their suppliers and to provide us with the information collected via the completed "conflict mineral reporting template" (http://www.conflictfreesourcing.org/conflict-minerals-reporting-template/).