What is the CMRT?
The Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (CMRT) is just what it sounds like - a reporting template that helps manufacturers and suppliers communicate information regarding the country of origin, smelters, and refiners used along a material’s supply chain. Created and distributed by the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI), the CMRT can also aid in the identification of new smelters and refiners to go through the RMI’s Responsible Minerals Assurance Process (RMAP). Broadly speaking, the CMRT helps support ethical purchasing along supply chains that use materials otherwise classified as conflict minerals.
What are Conflict Minerals?
The 2012 rule in the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act required companies to publicly disclose their use of conflict minerals originating from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or an adjoining country. These minerals include gold, tin, tantalum, and tungsten and can often be referred to as 3TG metals (extracted from cassiterite, columbite-tantalite, and wolframite minerals). These raw materials have been found to finance conflict in the DRC and this compliance regulation helps reduce the funding that perpetuates this regional violence. The EU also passed a similar regulation in 2017 to stop conflict minerals and metals from being exported to the EU, to stop smelters and refiners from using the conflict minerals, and to ensure miner safety.
Updates to the CMRT
The newest version of the CMRT was released on May 11, 2022, and can be downloaded here. Updates included minor revisions to the “Product List” tab. The next version of the CMRT is expected to release in the Spring of 2023. As a widely recognized and standardized reporting template, using the CMRT for Conflict Minerals compliance is a great tool.
Using the CMRT in Toxnot
Toxnot has a robust and free compliance solution that allows you to screen your entire library of product bill of materials (BOMs) against Conflict Minerals substances. You can also create reports to communicate your compliance to your customers and stakeholders. Additionally, Toxnot supports supply chain outreach via surveying. Collecting product data is often one of the most demanding steps in trying to meet compliance standards, but Toxnot takes on the heavy lifting. In order to make the most out of the CMRT, you can collect complete CMRTs from your suppliers in the system where they will be stored alongside your product BOM and other metadata.
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