About the data

Laws on responsible sourcing of minerals generally focus on tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold (3TG). If a company has a policy on sourcing other minerals responsibly, this would be a good sign that they take the issue seriously and are willing to go beyond the legal requirements.

To research this metric you need to be familiar with some mineral terms:

cassiterite (the metal ore from which tin is extracted)

columbite-tantalite, also known as coltan (the metal ore from which tantalum is extracted)

wolframite (the metal ore from which tungsten is extracted)

gold

All of the terms above relate to 3TG minerals - tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold. This metric is asking whether the company's responsible sourcing practices also extend to non-3TG minerals.

You should only answer this question with a “Yes” for a company if you find evidence that they have a policy on sourcing responsibly at least one non-3TG mineral - for example diamonds, cobalt or copper. If you find this kind of evidence and enter a “Yes” value please leave a comment with some details of what you found (e.g. which minerals) as a comment. The only way we can find to make this judgment is to read in detail the material the company produces about its sourcing policies and practices. If you find a faster way to make this judgment while conducting your research, please make a comment and let us know!

To research this metric you should read the materials a company produces about its sourcing policies and practices and see if they apply to non-3TG minerals.

You can find relevant materials through the metrics for Conflict Minerals ReportConflict Minerals Policy and Conflict Minerals Page – if the company you are researching doesn’t have values for those metrics please consider adding values for those metrics before you add one for this.

If you don’t find any evidence that the company sources minerals other than 3TG responsibly – set the company’s value to “No” and include the document(s) you read as source(s).

When researching a company on this metric, you might also want to consider researching the sourcing minerals responsibly globally metric because they both involve reading the same sources.