DRC Conflict Minerals: Rules, Reporting, and EU Duties

DRC conflict minerals compliance means tracing whether the tin, tantalum, tungsten, or gold in your products originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo or an adjoining country, running OECD-aligned due diligence when the answer is yes or unclear, and filing the results annually with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Form SD. Companies that import those same minerals into the European Union face a parallel obligation under EU Regulation 2017/821. Private companies outside both regimes still feel the rules through supply-chain surveys from public-company customers.

Who Has to Comply

In the United States, Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act (codified at 15 U.S.C. § 78m(p)) reaches every company that files reports with the SEC under the Securities Exchange Act. In practical terms, that is every publicly traded U.S. company. The company is in scope if it manufactures products, or contracts to have products manufactured, in which tin, tantalum, tungsten, or gold is necessary to the product’s functionality or production.¹ A retailer that only resells finished electronics is not covered. The test is whether the mineral is essential to what the product does or how it is made.

In the EU, Regulation 2017/821 targets a different population: importers who bring 3TG minerals or metals into the Union above annual volume thresholds set in the regulation. Those thresholds are calibrated to capture at least 95% of total EU imports of each mineral or metal.²

Private companies with no SEC filings and no EU imports have no direct legal duty under either regime. The pressure arrives through customers. Public-company buyers need supplier data to complete their own filings, and a component maker, metal distributor, or contract fabricator that cannot answer a supply-chain survey often loses the contract.

The Four Minerals and the Covered Countries

The rules cover four elements, commonly abbreviated 3TG: tin, tantalum, tungsten, and gold. The U.S. covered region is the DRC plus nine adjoining countries: Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The EU regulation is broader in geography, applying to minerals from any conflict-affected or high-risk area worldwide, and it places direct obligations on smelters and refiners operating inside the EU.

The Annual U.S. Reporting Workflow

Covered companies file on Form SD by May 31 each year, covering the prior calendar year regardless of fiscal year end.¹ The process moves in stages, and where you stop depends on what the earlier stage turns up.

Step One: Reasonable Country of Origin Inquiry

The first step is a Reasonable Country of Origin Inquiry, or RCOI. This is a good-faith investigation designed to determine whether any of your 3TG came from the covered region or from recycled or scrap sources.¹ In practice, that means detailed questionnaires down the supply chain and a review of the responses. If the RCOI shows the minerals did not originate in a covered country, or that they came from recycled or scrap sources, you disclose that conclusion on Form SD with a short description of the inquiry. For that year, the process ends there.

Step Two: Supply Chain Due Diligence

If the RCOI shows minerals may have come from the covered region, or you cannot determine the origin, full due diligence follows. The statute requires diligence that conforms to a nationally or internationally recognized framework. Virtually all filers use the OECD’s five-step framework.³

Step Three: The Conflict Minerals Report

When due diligence indicates minerals came from the covered countries and are not “DRC conflict free,” the company attaches a Conflict Minerals Report as an exhibit to Form SD. The CMR describes the diligence steps taken, the results, and identifies the products that are not DRC conflict free. “DRC conflict free” is defined by statute as products that do not contain minerals that directly or indirectly finance or benefit armed groups in the DRC or adjoining countries.⁴

The OECD Five-Step Framework

The OECD framework is the reference standard for both regimes. It is risk-based rather than absolute: you are not expected to guarantee every gram of metal, but you are expected to show documented, meaningful progress.⁵

Build internal systems: adopt a supply chain policy, assign senior management oversight, set up recordkeeping, and establish a grievance mechanism.
Identify risks: map the supply chain, look for red flags in supplier information, and prioritize the most serious risks.
Respond to risks: report to senior management; for the most severe risks (serious human rights abuse, direct conflict financing) cut ties with the supplier, and for lesser risks work with the supplier to improve.
Audit smelters and refiners through independent third parties.
Report publicly on policies, risk assessments, and management plans, with reasonable protection for confidential business information.

Working the Supply Chain

Most companies are many steps removed from the mine. A smartphone maker buys components from suppliers who buy metals from traders who buy from smelters who process raw ore. Compliance means working that chain backwards.

Smelters and refiners are the practical chokepoint. They are the first point where raw ore becomes usable metal, which makes them the most effective verification stop. Once metal passes through a smelter, conflict-sourced material cannot be told from clean material by physical inspection alone.

The Conflict Minerals Reporting Template

The industry-standard survey tool is the Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT), a free standardized questionnaire from the Responsible Minerals Initiative. Downstream companies use it to collect and pass along information about which smelters and refiners processed the minerals in their products and where those minerals originated.⁶

The Responsible Minerals Assurance Process

The RMI also runs the Responsible Minerals Assurance Process (RMAP), an independent audit program that evaluates whether a smelter or refiner has adequate management systems for responsible sourcing. RMI-approved auditors conduct the assessments, and conformant status lasts one to three years depending on risk factors.⁷ The RMAP evaluates the smelter’s processes and systems, not whether every individual batch of material is clean. It is a management-system audit, not a material validation.

Recycled and Scrap Sources

Minerals from recycled or scrap sources get lighter treatment. If you know your 3TG came from recycled or scrap material, or have no reason to think otherwise, you can stop at the RCOI stage. You still disclose that determination and describe the inquiry on Form SD, and you still post the information on your public website, but no full due diligence and no Conflict Minerals Report are required.¹ If later inquiry shows the minerals did not in fact come from recycled or scrap sources, the full diligence obligations apply.

Enforcement After the Court Ruling

The paper rule and the enforced rule are not the same, and understanding the gap changes what a reasonable compliance program looks like today.

In 2014, the D.C. Circuit ruled in National Association of Manufacturers v. SEC that the requirement to describe products as “not been found to be DRC conflict free” violated the First Amendment as compelled speech. The court did not strike down the reporting framework itself, only the mandatory label.⁸

In April 2017, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance announced that it would not recommend enforcement against companies that limit their filings to the basic Form SD disclosure (the RCOI description and results) without submitting the full Conflict Minerals Report exhibit.⁹ That position remains in place but is a staff-level statement, not a formal repeal, and could shift with new SEC leadership.

Skipping Form SD entirely is a different question. The SEC’s final rule noted that non-compliant issuers could violate Exchange Act Sections 13(a) and 15(d), and face liability under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5 for materially false or misleading statements.¹⁰ There are no conflict-minerals-specific penalty amounts; consequences flow through the Exchange Act’s general enforcement provisions, which include injunctions, civil penalties, and, in fraud cases, potential criminal liability.

What EU Importers Have to Do

EU Regulation 2017/821 took mandatory effect on January 1, 2021. Importers of 3TG minerals and metals above the regulation’s volume thresholds must conduct OECD-aligned supply chain due diligence, adopt a responsible sourcing policy overseen by senior management, keep records for at least five years, submit to independent third-party audits, and report publicly on their diligence policies and practices.² Enforcement is delegated to individual EU member states, so the practical consequences of non-compliance vary across Europe.

What Private Companies Should Actually Do

If your company is neither an SEC filer nor an EU importer above the thresholds, no statute forces you to file anything. Your customers will still ask. Public-company buyers need CMRT responses to complete their own filings, and incomplete or missing data can cost you the account. Knowing which smelters and refiners process your materials, and tracking that information year over year, is the difference between answering a customer survey in a week and scrambling for months.

1
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Conflict Minerals Disclosure
2
EUR-Lex. Regulation (EU) 2017/821
3
OECD. OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High-Risk Areas
4
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 15 USC 78m – Periodical and Other Reports
5
OECD. Introduction to the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Upstream Actors
6
Responsible Minerals Initiative. About the Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT)
7
Responsible Minerals Initiative. RMI Assessments Introduction
8
Justia Law. National Association of Manufacturers v SEC, No 13-5252
9
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Updated Statement on the Effect of the Court of Appeals Decision on the Conflict Minerals Rule
10
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Final Rule – Conflict Minerals