Industrialized economies in the EU depend heavily on imports of minerals. The extraction and parts of the transport and processing of these minerals take place in the Global South and often bear high human rights and environmental risks. A lack of traceability in mineral supply chains makes it particularly difficult to hold companies accountable for negative environmental and social impacts of their operations and those of their suppliers. This paper analyses three mineral supply chains (copper, platinum, and gold) in order to develop propositions about how supply chain-specific characteristics affect traceability and foreign corporate accountability (FCA) in mineral supply chains. The analytical framework focuses on three dimensions: geopolitical dynamics, industry characteristics, and private governance mechanisms. The authors argue that chain-specific characteristics may foster or thwart traceability and FCA in mineral supply chains and thus provides a novel contribution to the debate on traceability and accountability in mineral supply chains.

中文翻译：

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矿产供应链中的可追溯性和外国企业责任

欧盟工业化经济体严重依赖矿产进口。这些矿物的开采以及部分运输和加工均在南半球国家进行，往往面临很高的人权和环境风险。矿产供应链缺乏可追溯性，使得企业很难对其运营及其供应商的运营对环境和社会造成的负面影响承担责任。本文分析了三种矿产供应链（铜、铂和金），以便就供应链特定特征如何影响矿产供应链中的可追溯性和外国企业责任 (FCA) 提出建议。分析框架侧重于地缘政治动态、行业特征和私人治理机制三个维度。作者认为，特定于供应链的特征可能会促进或阻碍矿产供应链中的可追溯性和 FCA，从而为矿产供应链中可追溯性和问责制的争论提供了新颖的贡献。