Overview
Conflict-minerals rules come down to one question: where did the tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold come from? Companies have to trace it so that revenues do not fund armed conflict.
The four minerals are 3TG: Tin, Tantalum, Tungsten and Gold. The CMRT is the industry-standard form used to collect their origin and smelter data up the supply chain.
The rules
How the data is collected
The Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (Responsible Minerals Initiative) collects smelters and country of origin for 3TG.
The EMRT extends the same approach to cobalt and mica, and the IPC-1755 standard defines an XML data-exchange format for conflict-minerals data.
Like material declarations, this is a supply-chain data problem. You survey many suppliers, normalise their responses, and roll them up, the same pattern as a Full Material Declaration.
Note: this is general educational information from the Pareo team, not legal advice. Verify obligations, scope and the current CMRT version against the official regulation and the Responsible Minerals Initiative.