LG Innotek (CEO Ung-beom Lee) has started to fully respond to conflict minerals regulations by expanding its education of its partner company and operating its controlling system.
Though this company is not directly subject to the regulation of conflict minerals, it has decided to respond one step ahead from the stage of materials and parts so that it may minimize the business risk of its customers listed on the US security exchange.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) required all stock exchange listed businesses to provide the status of their use of conflict minerals from last May. If the businesses fail to provide the relevant information, the SEC will take powerful regulatory actions, including prohibition of business, civil and criminal punishment, and delisting from the stock exchange.
The conflict minerals refer to tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold produced in conflict zones in Africa, including Congo and Zambia. These minerals have raised world issues as human rights are violated severely or child labor is exploited in their mining processes and their sales amount flows into the hands of certain guerillas or rebel organizations.
LG Innotek has finished its survey of origins of minerals and refineries of 281 partner companies that use tin, tungsten, tantalum and gold. Total five months were taken to finish the survey from October last year to May this year. As the result, it has been confirmed that none of its partner companies use any conflict minerals to date.
The company has introduced a control system in order to continuously respond to the regulation over conflict minerals. The company also conducts a real-time monitoring as to whether any of its products are subject to the regulation over conflict minerals by checking the information concerning the refineries and origin of all materials before they are received at its warehouse. In particular, the company checks the status fast by interlinking the conflict mineral related information to its Hazardous Substance Management System.
LG Innotek also places weight on its education of the partner company. It is difficult to find out the origin or refinery as these minerals are often imported in processed state. To effectively respond to the regulation, it is critical to improve understanding of the partner companies of the conflict minerals and to make efforts to gather accurate information.
LG Innotek expands its education of working-level employees belonging to its partner companies while providing guidelines for them to address the regulation over the conflict minerals. By last July, the company has completed its education of personnel belonging to over 200 domestic and overseas partner companies related to key minerals The company also plans to conduct ‘courses to train environmentally-friendly workers’ for these partner companies. Those who participate in the education will learn the trends of regulations over the conflict minerals and the methods how to use the control system.
“Many of our customers in the markets of mobile, display devices, and cars are global businesses that have established a solid position in USA and Europe,” said one of the company executives. “We’ll carefully respond one step ahead others so that they can use our advanced materials and parts with confidence even when the regulation over the conflict minerals is strengthened.”
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LG Innotek employees monitor the relevant status using its system for addressing regulations over the conflict minerals.
