In a letter to the SEC, Senator Mark Pryor (D-Ark)asked that the Commission exempt 100 percent recycled or scrap tungsten from the reporting requirements of the final conflict minerals regulations under Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act. According to the Senator, the SEC's proposed regulation implementing Section 1502 may disadvantage U.S. manufacturers by creating impractical and cost-prohibitive compliance protocols for recycled or scrap tungsten.
Section 1502 does not address recycled tungsten and considers virgin tungsten a contlict mineral. The SEC's proposed regulations state that if an issuer's conflict minerals are derived from recycled or scrap sources rather than mined sources, the issuer may consider those minerals DRC conflict free. However, the draft rules neither specify the due diligence required of such issuers nor dcfine when a conflict mineral is recycled or scrap. Instcad, any issuer seeking to use this alternative approach would have to provide its reasons for believing that the conflict mineral is from recycled or scrap sources in its Conflict Minerals Report, which would include the due diligence on the source of the mineral.