TOWARDS RESPONSIBLE MINERAL SUPPLY CHAINSA GLOBAL STANDARD
Towards responsible mineral supply chains
Trade and investment in natural mineral resources hold great potential for generating income, growthand prosperity, sustaining livelihoods and fostering local development. However, a significant shareof these resources is located in conflict-affected and high-risk areas, where they may contribute,
directly or indirectly, to armed conflict, including terrorist financing, human rights violations andhinder economic and social development.
The OECD Due Diligence Guidance forResponsible Supply Chains of Minerals
from Conflict-Affected and HighRisk Areas clarifies how companies
can identify and better manage risks
throughout the entire mineral supply
chain, from miners, local exporters andmineral processors to the manufacturing
and brand-name companies that use
these minerals in their products.
The Guidance aims to help companies
respect human rights, observe applicable
rules of international humanitarian law
in situations of armed conflict, avoid
contributing to conflict and cultivatetransparent mineral supply chains andsustainable corporate engagement in
the mineral sector. The objective ofthe Guidance is ultimately to promoteresponsible private sector engagementin post-conflict fragile states.

A -stepframework

The Guidance is applicable to allminerals and global in scope. Companies
sourcing or using minerals in theiroperations are expected to ensure their
supply chains are clean and transparent.
Illegally exploited minerals include, but
are not limited to, gold and those foundin electronic equipment such as tin (usedin laptops), tantalum (mobile phones,fibre optics) and tungsten (light bulbs).

The de facto
international standard
Since its adoption in May 2011, theGuidance has become the leadingindustry standard for companies looking
to live up to the expectations of theinternational community and customers
on mineral supply chain transparency
and integrity.

The Guidance was developed by OECDand non-OECD countries (includingcountries
fromtheInternational
Conference on the Great Lakes Region),
industry and civil society, as well as theUN Group of Experts on the Democratic
Republic of the Congo. It integrates
recommendations developed by theFinancial Action Task Force (FATF), whichsets standards and promotes the effective
implementation of measures to combat
money laundering and terrorist financing.
The Guidance is now referenced and usedin binding regulations in the United Statesand serves as the basis for a draft EU
regulation on responsible mineral supply
chains. It is also part of the legal framework
in several African countries, notably theDRC, Burundi and Rwanda.
Together with China’s Chamber ofCommerce for Metals and the Ministryof Commerce, the OECD supported

Establish strong
company
management
systems

Identify and assess
risk in the supply
chain

Design andimplement astrategy to respondto identified risks

Carry out
independent thirdparty audit of supply
chain due diligence

Report annually on
supply chain due
diligencethe development of the Chinese Due
Diligence Guidelines for Responsible
Mineral Supply Chains to implement
responsible mineral sourcing and due
diligence in conformity with the OECD
Guidance. This encourages the uptakeof the OECD Guidance in other major
mineral trading countries and beyond
China.
Since 2010, seven UN Security Council Resolutions adopted in the context

The OECD Guidance and theartisanal mining sector
One of the main areas of focus of
the implementation programmeof the Guidance is to ensure thatinternational standards do notfurther marginalize workers of
the informal sector. The OECD
Guidance therefore entails
an Appendix on “suggested
measures to create economic anddevelopment opportunities forartisanal and small-scale miners”
calling on all stakeholders to engage
in legalisation and formalisation
programmes of artisanal mining
communities.
The objective is two-fold:To build secure, transparent•
and verifiable supply chains frommine to market and enable due
diligence for legitimate artisanal andsmall-scale mining.
To ensure that legitimate•artisanal mining communities
can benefit from ongoing tradein conflict-affected and high-riskareas, to support their development
and thus contribute to the general
improvement of the situation on theground.

of DRC and Côte d’Ivoire called for due
diligence in mineral supply chains basedon the OECD Guidance to avoid financing
illegal armed groups. The Guidance has
thus been accepted globally as a key
tool to help implement natural resource
related sanctions and combat financing ofconflict.

Increasing uptake by
the global industry
The Guidance is widely implemented by
the industry, through the development ofindustry association programmes designed
to operationalise all five steps of theGuidance.
Industry
initiatives
estimatethatapproximately 90% of all refined gold,
95% of smelted tantalum and 75-85%
of smelted tin produced every year iscovered by industry audit programmes
designed to implement the Guidance,
although some of these programs havelimited geographic scope.

Disseminating theGuidance
The OECD hosts an implementation
programme for the Guidance withrepresentatives from organisations fromdonor and implementing governments,
the private sector, civil society, as well asother experts and stakeholders.
While industry takes a leading role in
implementing the Guidance in day today business activities, governments
and international organisations play animportant role in creating the enabling
conditions in terms of the regulatoryenvironment, rule of law and security.
Local and international civil society actors

also play a crucial role in monitoring theconditions of resource extraction andtrade, monitoring company activities
and disseminating information on risks,building local capacity and raisingawareness.
Dissemination
activities
byall
stakeholders include awareness raisingand training, the development of easy
to use guides and materials, casestudies on emerging best practices
within the private sector, as wellas the dissemination of tools andmethodologies for implementing theGuidance.
Aspartof
theimplementation
programme,themulti-stakeholder
OECD-ICGLR-UN Forum facilitates thebuilding of partnerships across producing,processing and consuming economies
and reports on “mine to market” projectsof responsibly-sourced minerals carriedout in co-operation with host governments
and implementing partners. The Forumtakes place annually in May at the OECD
in Paris, France.

OECD GuidElines forMultinational Enterprises
The OECD Due Diligence Guidancebuilds on and is consistent with theprinciples and standards contained in
the OECD Guidelines for Multinational
Enterprises. The Guidelines
are the most comprehensive
set of government-backed
recommendations on responsible
business conduct in existence today.
Governments that adhere to theGuidelines aim to encourage thepositive contributions MNEs canmake to sustainable development andto minimise the difficulties to which
their operations may give rise.

mneguidelines.oecd.org/mining.htm
For more information, please contact rbc@oecd.org