Conflict Minerals Rule may benefit North American Miners

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December 23, 2010 (Price Target Media) Carson City, NV - The Securities and Exchange Commission has opened a nine-month period in accepting public comments on the proposed Conflict Minerals Rule following SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro's speech earlier this month. While the press is playing up the disclosure for retailers across the United States as having to report where the materials came from as being a headache, for domestic mining companies it could turn out to be a blessing in disguise, says Price Target Media President, Eric Stevenson.

"While Sarbanes-Oxley will require all mining companies to organize a committee to oversee the disclosure reporting and form requirements of reporting on the properties held under exploration or development of the SEC's proposed Conflict Minerals Rule, the demand for domestic-based minerals may increase as a result," said Stevenson. "Companies should begin adopting a communications strategy that voices those obvious benefits to the marketplace now and take advantage of the publicity opportunity generated by Schapiro's speech."

The Securities and Exchange Commission voted to propose the new rules under the financial overhaul law enacted in July. The regulators' goal is to make companies engaged in potentially controversial activities more accountable about them to shareholders.

Conflict minerals are defined as gold, cassiterite, wolframite and columbite-tantalite, also called coltan.

And companies that use "conflict" minerals from the Congo and neighboring countries in their products would have to file each year a report including a description of the research the company did to trace the minerals back to their sources. Descriptions of the manufactured products and the factories that processed the minerals would have to be included.

Companies including Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Target Corp. failed to persuade the Securities and Exchange Commission to exempt them from the requirement, which is part of the Dodd-Frank Financial Reform Act passed in July, the WSJ reports.

"The benefit to North American mining companies is tremendous if they act quickly to publicly voice their value to companies that use domestically-mined minerals, not unlike the wave of public concern a few years back in the clothing industry when the public boycotted products made in sweatshops," said Stevenson. "Schapiro has given investor relations agencies a real opportunity to promote domestic production."

For more information contact:
Price Target Media, Inc.
Eric Stevenson, President
888-744-8777
eric@pricetargetmedia.com