BANNOCKBURN, IL – IPC is supporting a movement to phase-in new regulations governing so-called conflict metals over a three-year period.

The trade group this month submitted comments to the US Securities and Exchange Commission regarding the legal basis for a phase-in of the conflict minerals regulatory requirements. The SEC is charged with overseeing the legislation’s implementation under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which was signed into law in 2010.

The conflict metals rule attempts to contain raw tin and other ores mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The minerals are said to be funding an ongoing civil war that has cost millions of lives over the past decade. US businesses have generally rejected the legislation as ineffective and impossible to authenticate.

IPC submitted a four-page brief proposing a three-year phase-in of the rules. The association’s recommendations are based on the anticipated dates at which on-the-ground tracking systems, such as the ITRI bag-and-tag program, are in place and supplying verifiable conflict-free minerals.

In addition, IPC believes the three-year period will give a significant number of smelters the opportunity to be audited and their products validated as conflict-free.

Without the phase-in, a de facto ban of minerals from the DRC and adjacent countries will be the only way to provide certifiably conflict-free minerals, as there are no tracking systems in place, says IPC.