The audit was conducted by a third party auditor assigned by the Electronics Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) and Global e-Sustainability Initiative (GeSI) as part of the Conflict-Free Smelter (CFS) Validation Programme.
“We are very pleased about this recertification,” said Andreas Meier, president and CEO of H.C. Starck. “It is an award for our raw materials strategy and an incentive to continue our sustainability commitment.” All of H.C. Starck’s tantalum processing plants in the United States, Germany, Japan, and Thailand were audited by the EICC and GeSI in the beginning of 2013 and were found to meet the high CFS site requirements. To be declared conflict-free, H.C. Starck had to prove that it has documented a conflict minerals policy which is integrated into business operations; deploys a system for tracing finished goods back to its mine of origin, and documents that all of its purchased materials are from conflict-free sources.
“A secure, long-term supply of conflict-free raw materials is a strategic core topic for our company and also benefits our customers,” Meier added, noting that H.C. Starck is also focussing on increasing metals recycling. “Technology metal recycling is a distinctive competence of H.C. Starck. It helps us to accomplish supply security, and it reduces our dependency from volatile raw material pricing.”
H.C. Starck said that it fully supports the position of the EICC and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to avoid the use of ores and metals that finance or benefit armed groups in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) or adjoining countries. The company is committed to actively supporting its customers with their diligence and disclosure requirements as required by the SEC regulations. H.C. Starck is a founding member of the Public-Private Alliance for Responsible Minerals Trade (PPA).