Conflict minerals webinar offers critical compliance information

element14, the collaborative community and electronics store for design engineers and electronics enthusiasts, part of global electronics distributor Premier Farnell, is co-sponsoring a free one hour webinar with IPC (Association Connecting Electronics Industries) entitled, "Conflict Minerals: What they are and how to comply" on Wednesday, October 23, 2012 at 12 noon CDT. The webcast is presented by a panel of experts at the forefront of conflict minerals compliance: Fern Abrams from IPC; Ken Rivlin from the law firm Allen & Overy and Jay Celorie from Hewlett-Packard. Section 1502 of the United States' 2010 Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act requires regulated companies to annually report on the origin of tin, tantalum, gold and tungsten that is added to or is contained in their products. The intent of the law is to assure that none of these metals were derived from ore mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo or adjoining countries, where the proceeds from the mining and transport of the ore was used to finance armed conflict and human rights violations. Effective calendar year 2013, New York Stock Exchange publically traded companies will have to submit a "specialized disclosure" report annually to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by May 31st of the following year. In order to trace a product's mineral origins, companies will need to demand data and information from the entire global supply chain, meaning electronics manufacturers, distributors and end users could be impacted, regardless if their companies are SEC regulated or not. Ken Manchen, Environment Affairs director for Premier Farnell, said: "Under the SEC rule, a company required to file a Conflict Minerals Report must exercise due diligence in determining the source of their conflict minerals. These measures taken must conform to a nationally, or internationally, recognized due diligence framework. SEC specifically cited conflict minerals due diligence guidance recently issued by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) which applies to 34 countries around the world (including Europe, North America, South America, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and Iceland)." Registration for the live webinar is open now and an on-demand version can be accessed after October 23, 2012. element 14 More regulation information