Environmental and Regulatory Affairs Committee (ERAC)

Mission:
To promote understanding of the regulation of the precious metals industry among producers, refiners and users of precious metals, and among regulators and governments, and to provide a forum for discussion of technical and scientific information upon which such regulation should be based.

Membership:
Membership in the ERAC is open to members of the IPMI who are willing and able to contribute their time to its activities, with a limit of fifteen. Other IPMI members are welcome as observers at all meetings.

Current members are:

Amanda Hale, United Recycling Industries
Manfred Hauf
Bob Jacobsen, Sabin Metals
Chris Jones, Gannon & Scott
Dave Kinneberg, James Avery Inc.
Ted Knudson, Brush Wellman
Ashok Kumar, A-1 Specialized Services and Supplies, Inc.
Andrew McManus, Metech
Karl Mock, Karlan Services
George Phillips, Sipi Metals
Peter Eckert, Heraeus Metal Processing
Robert Tapper, BASF Catalysts LLC
Cindy Thomas, Falconbridge
Paul Vincent, Johnson Matthey
Philippe van Maele, Umicore Precious Metals Refining

John Bullock serves as Chair

Scheduled Meetings: 5-24-2006 10 am
The ERAC meets quarterly. Meetings are open to all members of the IPMI to attend as observers, subject only to meeting room size and logistical limitations.
Recent meetings for which minutes are available are 24 March 2003, 21 October 2002, 15 July 2002, and 4 March 2002. Minutes of the meeting of 14 July 2003 will be available when approved.

Next scheduled meeting:

ERAC Meeting
May 24, 2006  10 a.m.
Radisson Airport Hotel Warwick,RI

Current Issues:
The IPMI ERAC closely follows U.S. regulatory developments, as well as international developments in the Basel Convention and its OECD counterpart. There are a number of issues on which the IPMI ERAC is currently active, including:

1) Anti-Money Laundering Regulations proposed by the U.S. Treasury for Dealers in Precious Metals. For further information, see the proposed regulations, and "Something Old, Something New: Money Laundering and Precious Metals", a paper from the IPMI Annual Conference reviewing the applicability and impact of the proposal.
2) Process Safety in Secondary Precious Metal Processs.
3) Regulation of International Trade in Precious Metal Secondary Materials and Intermediate Products. For further information, see a report of the most recent Conference of the Parties of the Basel Convention.
4) U.S. RCRA Classification of Precious Metal-bearing Materials and Intermediate Products. See the IPMI Petition to the U.S. EPA.
5) Management of Beryllium. See the IPMI Guidance on sound management of beryllium.
6) Environmentally Sound Management of Used Personal Computers and Electronic Scrap. See the IPMI Comment on the U.S. EPA proposal regarding CRTs and other electronic scrap.

Links:
General links of interest:
             Basel Convention
             USEPA
             OSHA

Disclaimer:
The IPMI and the ERAC provide information in this site, and in meetings and reports, which they believe to be accurate, to the best of their abilities, but can not assure anyone that such information is accurate or includes all developments and issues. The IPMI and the ERAC assume no responsibility to their members or to anyone else with regard to any information, opinions, or positions. No contractual or fiduciary relationship is created between any persons by the creation or use of this web site.