In May, 2017, The European Parliament and the European Council decided on the EU regulation (EU) 2017/821 that defines supply chain due diligence obligations for Union importers of conflict minerals. Conflict minerals include tantalum, tin, tungsten, their ores, and gold, originating in conflict-affected or high-risk areas. Primarily this concerns minerals from Democratic Republic of Congo and the surrounding Central African states.

Import of conflict minerals carries with it the risk that income from extraction of these minerals is used to finance armed conflict. There are also cases where the extraction involves terrible actions against the local population, including forced labour, forced displacement and other crimes against human rights.

The purpose of the regulation is to make sure that those that import conflict minerals to the EU as far as possible has to ensure that the extraction is made in acceptable manner and that the profits are not used to finance armed conflict, by improving traceability in the supply chain. The regulation is valid for all import of conflict minerals from 1 January 2021 and forward.

Even though Leine Linde is not defined as an importer of conflict minerals, and would be far below the volume thresholds defined in the regulation, we work actively for transparency when it comes to conflict minerals and their potential use in our products.

As a step in our work, Leine Linde has taken the following actions:

• We have created a policy that describes our principles regarding conflict minerals.
• We have developed a process to identify the use of tantalum, tin, tungsten and gold in our products, and a review process to secure the origin of these minerals within our supply chain. 
• We communicate our policy to our suppliers to stop any use of minerals originating from conflict-affected or high-risk areas in our products. Supplier requirements Leine Linde expects all suppliers that deliver components or material containing tantalum, tin, tungsten or gold to actively ensure that these minerals do not originate in conflict-affected areas.

Supplier requirements

Leine Linde expects all suppliers that deliver components or material containing tantalum, tin, tungsten or gold to actively ensure that these minerals do not originate in conflict-affected areas.