BANNOCKBURN, IL — A just-released Tulane University study found costs of implementing the US Conflict Minerals regulations to be $7.93 billion, more than 100 times greater than an earlier estimate prepared by the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

The Tulane findings, available at http://tinyurl.com/3bl8ntg, elicited a sharp rebuke from IPC, from which the data were partly mined.

“The Tulane study underscores the need for the SEC to be conscious of the high costs of implementation,” said IPC. “The SEC must utilize all reasonable options to lessen the burden of implementation, the most important of which is a phasing-in of the regulations to allow industry the time to work with their complex global supply chains to develop traceability and compliance data.”

The Tulane study supports the need to establish, for a transition period, a category for conflict minerals whose origin cannot be determined. The regulations proposed by the SEC require that conflict minerals be identified as either conflict-free or as associated with conflict.

The original IPC survey collected data from 60 electronics manufacturing services companies, printed circuit board manufacturers, electronics materials suppliers and equipment suppliers.

• Prev
• Next