Cobalt was supposed to be the fifth conflict mineral along with 3TG (Tin, Tungsten, Tantalum and Gold) when Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was introduced in the United States. It was dropped because of resistance from corporates. Their reason was that identifying and validating smelters became complex as cobalt is primarily processed as a byproduct of copper and nickel mining.
Cobalt is the key element used in batteries of mobile phones, laptops, and electric vehicles and hence the demand for cobalt has been increasing year after year. The increased demand forced many suppliers to source the cobalt from DRC since they are the world’s leading producer of cobalt. As a result, companies using cobalt in their products are forced to do due diligence to ensure responsible sourcing.
Since there are reports of unsafe mining practices and the use of child labor, RMI has launched a pilot Cobalt Template (CRT) on 1st March 2018 to understand the difficulties and bottlenecks for the collection of due diligence information in the cobalt supply chain. The pilot phase will run from 1 March 2018 to 31 August 2018.
The Cobalt Reporting Template (CRT) is a standard reporting template created by the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA) to gather information regarding mineral country of origin, and smelters and refiners being utilized. The CRT is limited only to cobalt supply chains.
The CMRT follows the IPC-1755 Standard, which does not currently include cobalt or questions related to the cobalt supply chain. The CMRT is intended, in part, to facilitate the exchange of data necessary for compliance with Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Even though there are no regulatory compliance requirements in place for cobalt now, CRTs should be provided to your customers, as a good practice measure, and may be posted on your website.
Please Read more about cobalt reporting to learn more about cobalt reporting and download the RMI’s cobalt reporting template (CRT).
Are you an importer of Cobalt? and Do you want to know how to perform due diligence under Responsible Cobalt Initiative (RCI) and RMI? Talk to our experts at ComplianceXL.
