The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the "Dodd-Frank Act") contains conflict minerals provisions to address the exploitation and trade of certain minerals which contribute to violence and human rights abuses in the Democratic Republic of Congo and its neighboring countries. Under rules adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission implementing these conflict minerals provisions (the "Conflict Minerals Rules"), public reporting companies having "Conflict Minerals" that are necessary to the functionality or production of a product manufactured or contracted by that company to be manufactured must disclose annually whether those Conflict Minerals originated in any of the "Covered Countries," and if so, information about the source and chain of custody of those Conflict Minerals. The "Conflict Minerals" for purposes of the Conflict Minerals Rules are gold, columbite-tantalite (coltan), cassiterite, and wolframite (including their derivatives, tantalum, tin and tungsten) and any other minerals designated by the U.S. Secretary of State in the future. The "Covered Countries" are the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia and Angola. "DRC Conflict Free" means that the product does not contain Conflict Minerals that directly or indirectly financed or benefited armed groups in the Covered Countries.
Cerner Corporation and its subsidiaries ("Cerner," "us", "we" or "our") support efforts to end the human suffering and environmental impact that has been associated with mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo and adjoining countries. We are committed to meeting all legislative and regulatory requirements that seek to eradicate this suffering. We also support greater transparency with regard to our supply chain, in particular the sourcing of Conflict Minerals. Accordingly, we have adopted this Conflict Minerals Policy, and we expect our suppliers to adopt a similar policy and meet our expectations below.
Tracing the origin and chain of custody of minerals throughout a global supply chain is a complex process. This can only be accomplished with the cooperation and support of a vast number of industries and public and private stakeholders. To this end, we have the following expectations of our suppliers and their suppliers to acquire minerals only from responsible sources:
In seeking to meet these expectations, our suppliers will be expected to:
We evaluate our relationship with our suppliers on an ongoing basis, and we reserve the right to evaluate the extent to which a supplier has failed to reasonably comply with this Conflict Minerals Policy. If we determine that a supplier's efforts are deficient, we reserve the right to evaluate the supplier relationship and to take any appropriate action, including terminating our relationship with the supplier.
Nothing in this Conflict Minerals Policy is intended in any way to grant any additional rights or expectations to any of our suppliers, or in any way modify or otherwise limit our contractual or legal rights.
Our associates, suppliers and other interested parties may contact us regarding this Conflict Minerals Policy at conflictminerals@cerner.com.