IBT Press Release

Traxys Group - 15th June 2012
IBT Press Release

IBT Press Release

June, 15 2012

Traxys responded today to an article appearing in the June 12, 2012 edition of The International Business Times concerning Traxys’s activities in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The IBT article alleges that the “anonymous hacking collective” had hacked private website emails of Traxys and uncovered alleged activities of Traxys, involving “conflict minerals” originating in the DRC. 

The hacked emails consisted of an unsolicited, anonymous inquiry from a “person” unknown to Traxys concerning lead sourced in the DRC, but then located in a warehouse in Zambia. The other email cited in the article was from a Danish company, also unsolicited, inquiring as to Traxys’s interest in purchasing coltan, which was available from a mine in Sierra Leone.

Responding to the warfare and criminal activities in the Eastern DRC, in early 2009 Traxys terminated all of its activities in that part of the Congo, and since then has conducted no business activities in that territory. 

Traxys has never traded in any lead products originating in the DRC, and has no interest in doing so now. The anonymous inquiry made to Traxys’s website is obviously the act of some fraudster unknown to Traxys.

The other email cited in the article was responded to by Traxys, asking for greater detail as to the coltan offered for sale. The company making the inquiry, headquartered in Denmark, indicated that it had coltan available from a production facility in Sierra Leone. 

Traxys added that it is a member of iTSCi and a staunch adherent to iTSCi’s tagging system used to identify the source of “conflict minerals” originating in the “conflict area”. Traxys has scrupulously adhered to its policy of refusing to purchase materials which might indirectly finance or benefit armed groups in the DRC. 

That the International Business Times would use an anonymous, unsolicited email to a company’s website as the basis to accuse Traxys of illegal activities in the DRC is worthy of condemnation, and casts substantial doubt on the credibility of that publication and the author of the article.