AVX moves to fight mineral smuggling

Article By : AVX Corp.

AVX has joined the Solutions for Hope project in finding due diligence options against illegal mining and smuggling of minerals in parts of Africa.

Tin, tantalum, and tungsten or the 3Ts are some of the metals typically smuggled by armed groups in the black market. To eliminate this problem, AVX Corp. has joined the Solutions for Hope project to promote responsible sourcing of minerals in Africa.

Dubbed the "3Ts Due Diligence Options Pilot," the initiative is testing solutions involving a cloud-based process developed by the Better Sourcing Program (BSP) and AVX’s Geological Passporting chain of custody system.

Mobile app for real-time monitoring

The BSP tool is a mobile application that allows real-time monitoring, chain of custody tracking and issues reporting. The Geological Passporting system provides mineralogical, geochemical and geochronological analysis of ores at mines, helps validate origins, reduce smuggling as well as the cost of due diligence processes.

AVX and the Solutions for Hope project have collaborated with communities, government and the industry to study due diligence options and improve transparency and share best practices among participants. Among the participants were BSP-supported mines, exporter Rwanda Pure Water, and processor Global Advanced Metals.

The first shipment that benefitted from the Pilot program was received by Global Advanced Metals in August, which was also among the tantalum receipts that passed a recent third-party audit. The audit was done by the Conflict-Free Smelter Program.

Companies in the United States are required by law to disclose use of certain minerals in their products and to describe the process they used them for. This is to ensure that the purchase of those minerals did not fund illegally armed groups operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and neighbouring countries.

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