P&G, Estée Lauder Investigate Conflict Minerals in Supply Chain

The Estée Lauder Companies Inc. and P&G have released  specialized disclosure reports concerning the use of conflict minerals in its products.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defines conflict minerals as “columbite-tantalite (coltan), cassiterite, gold, wolfamite, or their derivatives, which are limited to tantalum, tin and tungsten (3TG).”

According to the report, the company it conducted inquiries to determine whether any of the conflict minerals originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo or an adjoining country by analyzing supplier information. It also gave written notice to direct suppliers that such materials shall not contain conflict minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo or an adjoining country.

The report stated that based on the inquiry the company has concluded that there is no reason to believe its products were manufactured with the use of conflict minerals that many have originated in the Democratic Republic of Congo or an adjoining country.

The report from P&G stated that after its inquiry it has no reason to believe that the 3TG in its products is funding armed conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo or an adjoining country, but states “It remains challenging for many companies and their suppliers (including us and our suppliers) to gather complete and reliable data. For that reason, we have not been able to rule out the possibility that some conflict minerals in our products may have originated in the countries and may not be from recycled or scrap sources. Consequently, we exercised due diligence on the conflict minerals' origin and chain of custody and we are providing this Conflict Minerals Report to describe our due diligence processes and results.”