Session 5 - Control points: due diligence expectations and incentives for smelters and refiners
May 23, 2024 | 7:30 AM - 8:45 AM
May 23, 2024 | 7:30 AM - 8:45 AM
Description
The OECD Minerals Guidance sets out a unique role for smelters and refiners as identified points for due diligence audits along mineral supply chains. Articulating the division of responsibilities for upstream and downstream actors, the recommendations of the Guidance on control points are intended to foster a rationalised system of engagement and leverage throughout the supply chain aimed at effectively mitigating Annex II risks. However, observations from a range of stakeholders over the years have suggested that, in practice, there are serious shortcomings to how this system is functioning, in partcular due to limited due diligence information being collected and passed on downstream, variability in the determinants for leverage and visibility across supply chains, and a due diligence exercise that is too perfunctory, allowing audits to substitute for other forms of due diligence instead of inform them. The session will focus on due diligence expectations for smelters and refiners, and leverage lessons learnt from past Alignment Assessment exercises and discussions at meetings of the Network of International Gold Trading Centres.
