Something that industry is going to hear more about is the “Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act”
which was signed into law by President Obama on 21 July 2010. The Act includes a raft of measures arising out of the recent
financial crisis and runs to 2,300 pages!
Last year there was a bill in the US Senate known as the “Congo Conflict Minerals Act of 2009” which was similar.
The issue has been heavily debated on both sides and has now made it in to the Dodd-Frank Act. The section on conflict minerals
requires that companies, principally US listed, that are Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) registered disclose annually
whether it has used relevant minerals from the Democratic Republic of the Congo or an “adjoining country”.
Full report attached