Companies that have delayed getting to work on newly required disclosures of their use of conflict minerals mined in the Congo, hoping that a legal challenge would offer relief, may way want to reassess that strategy. A decision in an unrelated lawsuit may signal that a legal resolution will take much longer than anticipated.
Although very different, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent requirement to disclose the presence of so-called conflict minerals in supply chains (tin, tungsten, tantalum, and gold) is often lumped together with demands that oil, gas, and mining companies document payments to governments, foreign and domestic, for extraction rights. Both were required by the Dodd-Frank Act, enacted by the Commission on the same day, tackle social ills (the funding of violent warlords for the former, bribery for the latter), and require filings that use the new Form SD. Both are also being challenged with lawsuits filed by industry groups.
