RAPAPORT… Signet Jewelers has reaffirmed that its gold products do not
come from materials that have helped fund violence in certain war-torn African
countries.
For the fourth year in a row, the company has filed a
disclosure report confirming that all of its products containing possible
“conflict minerals” — including gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten — are “DRC
conflict-free,” the retailer said last week. This means those products did not directly
or indirectly finance or benefit armed groups in the Democratic Republic of
Congo or adjoining countries, according to the Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC) filing.
The US-based jeweler said it was one of only four companies that
had its conflict-free-gold SEC filing independently audited in 2014, 2015 and
2016, in accordance with Section 1502 of the Dodd-Frank Act. This piece of
legislation requires companies to disclose any use of conflict minerals.