BANNOCKBURN, IL – A group of leading solder manufacturers has issued a position statement showing its support for government intervention as a means to stop the flow of controversial metal ores from Congolese mines.

Per the IPC Solder Products Value Council’s statement, its members support “governments, non-governmental organizations and industry groups in their efforts to eliminate trade of ‘conflict metals,’ especially mined tin from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

“The IPC SPVC believes that based on solder manufacturers’ position in the value chain, smelters and mines are in the best position to develop and implement a system to ensure mineral traceability from the exporter back to the mine site and to develop chain of custody data. Furthermore, the IPC SPVC supports ITRI’s (formerly known as the International Tin Research Institute) efforts to achieve that goal.”

A pair of bills aimed at stopping the flow of conflict metals are under review by the US Congress. A US House committee has passed the conflict minerals bill (H.R. 4128), which would establish penalties for the import of columbite-tantalite, cassiterite and wolframite, and the Senate has approved S. 3217, a financial bill that includes those metals plus gold. There are distinct differences in how each bill proposes its penalties and oversight, however.

Members of the IPC SPVC include AIM; Amtech; Cookson Electronics; Henkel; Indium; Inventec Performance Chemicals; Kester; Koki; Metallic Resources; Nihon Superior; Nordson EFD; P. Kay Metal; Qualitek; Redring Solder; Senju; and Sigma Ming Gao Electronics.