Exhibit 1.01
 | Injection Molding Sheet Metal Fabrication CNC Machining 3D Printing |
PROTO LABS, INC.
CONFLICT MINERALS REPORT
For the reporting period from January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021
This Conflict Minerals Report (the “Report”) of Proto Labs, Inc. (the “Company,” “we,” “us” or “our”) has been prepared pursuant to Rule 13p-1 and Form SD (the “Rule”) promulgated under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, for the reporting period January 1, 2021 to December 31, 2021. The scope of this Report includes all of the Company’s product lines, including those of 3D Hubs, Inc. ("Hubs"), which was acquired by the Company in January 2021.
The Rule requires disclosure of certain information when a company manufactures or contracts to manufacture products for which the minerals specified in the Rule are necessary to the functionality or production of those products. The specified minerals, which we collectively refer to in the Report as the “Conflict Minerals,” are gold, columbite-tantalite (coltan), cassiterite and wolframite, including their derivatives, which are limited to tantalum, tin and tungsten. The “Covered Countries” for the purposes of the Rule are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Republic of the Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Zambia and Angola. As described in this Report, the Company manufactures certain products for which the Conflict Minerals are necessary to the functionality or production of those products.
Proto Labs, Inc. Overview
Proto Labs, Inc. is an e-commerce driven digital manufacturer of custom prototypes and on-demand production parts. We utilize injection molding, computer numerical control (CNC) machining, 3D printing and sheet metal fabrication processes to manufacture custom parts for product developers and engineers. We offer several plastic and metal material options to our customers who select the proper material(s) for production of their parts. A very limited number of the metal materials we offer for production of parts have been identified as containing Conflict Minerals (the “Covered Products”).
We have established management systems to support the execution of our Conflict Minerals program and ensure it operates effectively and is sustainable into the future. We have adopted a policy affirming our commitment to conducting business fairly and ethically with respect for human rights and in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, including the Rule, which is available on our website (the “Conflict Minerals Policy”). Our policy also affirms our support for the responsible sourcing of Conflict Minerals through our global supply chain, and states that we are actively and diligently working with our global supply chain partners to determine the origin of any Conflict Minerals they may supply to us, and that we will continue to work with them towards the goal of providing greater supply chain transparency and responsible sourcing. In addition to establishing a policy on Conflict Minerals, we have assembled a cross-functional team to implement and oversee our Conflict Minerals compliance program. We have a process in place to engage our suppliers to educate them about the Rule and request information from them regarding Conflict Minerals, and to collect, analyze and retain any such information received from them.
Reasonable Country of Origin Inquiry
We do not directly source Conflict Minerals. Instead, we purchase raw materials from third party suppliers that are multiple layers removed from the smelters and refiners of the Conflict Minerals that are in the raw materials ultimately supplied to us. We must therefore rely on our suppliers to provide information regarding the origin of Conflict Minerals that are included in such materials.
For the calendar year 2021 reporting period, we worked with a third-party provider of conflict minerals validation services to assist us in our good faith reasonable country of origin inquiry regarding the Conflict Minerals contained in the products we manufacture. We evaluated the products we manufactured for our customers and determined that certain products manufactured during calendar year 2021 were manufactured with raw materials that contain Conflict Minerals that are necessary to the functionality or production of those products. We identified 52 suppliers of those raw materials, and surveyed each of them using the Conflict Minerals Reporting Template (the "CMRT”) developed by the Responsible Minerals Initiative (the “RMI”). We requested that these suppliers make similar inquiries of their suppliers and sub-suppliers until the smelters and refiners of any Conflict Minerals in the raw materials supplied to us could be identified and compared to the conflict-free smelter and refiner lists developed and maintained by the RMI.
Due Diligence
Due Diligence Design and Framework
Because we could not determine that the Conflict Minerals in the Covered Products did not originate in a Covered Country or originated from recycled or scrap sources based on the responses to the CMRTs, we exercised due diligence on the source and chain of custody of the Conflict Minerals. The Company’s due diligence measures have been designed to conform to the five-step framework in the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chain of Minerals from Conflict-Affected and High Risk Areas: Third Edition, including the related supplements on gold, tin, tantalum and tungsten (the “OECD Guidance”).
Due Diligence Measures Performed
The objective of the due diligence performed was to determine the source and chain of custody of the Conflict Minerals contained in the Covered Products and to determine whether any of those Conflict Minerals are associated with armed groups in the Covered Countries. For the Covered Products manufactured during the twelve months ended December 31, 2021, the Company’s Operations, Compliance and Finance Departments were involved in the due diligence process.
As part of our due diligence, we reviewed supplier responses to each CMRT and followed up with suppliers who did not provide us with a timely response by escalating communication with unresponsive suppliers to the stakeholders in charge of the business relationship. In reviewing supplier responses, we challenged responses that did not respond on a product level and compared the information reported on the CMRTs to our knowledge of the composition of the materials contained in the Covered Products. We also followed-up on responses to try to get smelter information so that we could independently verify the information reported on each CMRT.
Due Diligence Results
46 of the 52 suppliers surveyed returned to us a completed CMRT, each reporting to us that the Conflict Minerals in the materials supplied to us for our Covered Products either 1) do not come from the Covered Countries or 2) are largely conformant to the RMI assessment protocols for conflict free sourcing, with one of the smelters and refiners listed as nonconformant, one listed as active and one is currently not enrolled. A listing of the known smelters and refiners identified by the Company’s suppliers is included in Annex I below. Given that these suppliers were not able to identify all smelter information or the country of origin of the Conflict Minerals, we are filing this conflict minerals report as we do not believe the information received from our suppliers and our additional due diligence efforts for calendar year 2021 are sufficient to determine the exact country of origin of the Conflict Minerals in our Covered Products. Further, we did not receive responses from all suppliers for calendar year 2021. We are continuing to work with our suppliers to monitor risks in our supply chain to ensure compliance with our Conflict Minerals Policy.
Future Steps to Mitigate Risk
The Company expects to take the following steps, among others, to continue to improve its due diligence measures and to further mitigate the risk that any Conflict Minerals necessary to the functionality of any of the Company’s products finance or benefit armed groups in the Covered Countries: continuing to engage with suppliers to obtain current, accurate and complete information about the supply chain; encouraging suppliers to implement responsible sourcing and to have them encourage smelters and refiners to obtain a “conflict-free” designation from an independent, third-party auditor; and engaging in industry initiatives encouraging “conflict-free” supply chains.
Annex I
As of April 29, 2022
The below list of Smelters or Refiners (SORs) were identified to the Company by our suppliers as following RMI protocols as of April 29, 2022. The Company is typically many tiers in the supply chain removed from SORs, and our direct suppliers have not traced materials supplied to us back to individual SORs. Many of our suppliers provided information to the Company on all SORs identified to them by their suppliers, and have not been able to confirm that 3TG processed by these SORs have been used in the products they have supplied us because they did not provide their CMRT at the product level. Therefore, it is possible that the list contains SORs not used to process 3TG contained in our products.
Annex I | |||
Smelters and Refiners | |||
Metal | Smelter Name | Smelter Location (Country) | RMAP Audit Status |
Tin | Alpha | United States of America | Conformant |
Tin | Dowa | Japan | Conformant |
Tin | EM Vinto | Bolivia (Plurinational State of) | Conformant |
Tin | Fenix Metals | Poland | Conformant |
Tin | Gejiu Non-Ferrous Metal Processing Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tin | Gejiu Kai Meng Industry and Trade LLC | China | Non Conformant |
Tin | China Tin Group Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tin | Malaysia Smelting Corporation (MSC) | Malaysia | Conformant |
Tin | Metallic Resources, Inc. | United States of America | Conformant |
Tin | Mineracao Taboca S.A. | Brazil | Conformant |
Tin | Minsur | Peru | Conformant |
Tin | Mitsubishi Materials Corporation | Japan | Conformant |
Tin | Jiangxi New Nanshan Technology Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tin | Operaciones Metalurgicas S.A. | Bolivia (Plurinational State of) | Conformant |
Tin | PT Artha Cipta Langgeng | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tin | PT Mitra Stania Prima | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tin | PT Refined Bangka Tin | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tin | PT Timah Tbk Kundur | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tin | PT Timah Tbk Mentok | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tin | Rui Da Hung | Taiwan, Province of China | Conformant |
Tin | Thaisarco | Thailand | Conformant |
Tin | White Solder Metalurgia e Mineracao Ltda. | Brazil | Conformant |
Tin | Yunnan Chengfeng Non-ferrous Metals Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tin | Yunnan Tin Company Limited | China | Conformant |
Tin | PT ATD Makmur Mandiri Jaya | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tin | Metallo Belgium N.V. | Belgium | Conformant |
Tin | Guangdong Hanhe Non-Ferrous Metal Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tin | Tin Technology & Refining | United States of America | Conformant |
Tin | Ma'anshan Weitai Tin Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | A.L.M.T. Corp. | Japan | Conformant |
Tungsten | Kennametal Huntsville | United States of America | Conformant |
Tungsten | Guangdong Xianglu Tungsten Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Chongyi Zhangyuan Tungsten Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tantalum | F&X Electro-Materials Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Global Tungsten & Powders Corp. | United States of America | Conformant |
Tantalum | Guangdong Zhiyuan New Material Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Hunan Chenzhou Mining Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Hunan Chunchang Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Ganzhou Huaxing Tungsten Products Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tantalum | JiuJiang JinXin Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tantalum | NPM Silmet AS | Estonia | Conformant |
Tin | PT Babel Surya Alam Lestari | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tin | PT Prima Timah Utama | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tin | PT Stanindo Inti Perkasa | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tin | Soft Metais Ltda. | Brazil | Conformant |
Tantalum | Solikamsk Magnesium Works OAO | Russian Federation | Conformant |
Tantalum | Ulba Metallurgical Plant JSC | Kazakhstan | Conformant |
Tungsten | Wolfram Bergbau und Hutten AG | Austria | Conformant |
Tungsten | Xiamen Tungsten Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Jiangxi Yaosheng Tungsten Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Jiangxi Gan Bei Tungsten Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tin | CV Venus Inti Perkasa | Indonesia | Active |
Tungsten | Ganzhou Seadragon W & Mo Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tin | Melt Metais e Ligas S.A. | Brazil | Outreach Required |
Tantalum | Jiangxi Dinghai Tantalum & Niobium Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Chenzhou Diamond Tungsten Products Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | H.C. Starck Tungsten GmbH | Germany | Conformant |
Tungsten | H.C. Starck Smelting GmbH & Co. KG | Germany | Conformant |
Tungsten | Masan Tungsten Chemical LLC (MTC) | Viet Nam | Conformant |
Tantalum | H.C. Starck Tantalum and Niobium GmbH | Germany | Conformant |
Tantalum | H.C. Starck Hermsdorf GmbH | Germany | Conformant |
Tantalum | H.C. Starck Inc. | United States of America | Conformant |
Tungsten | Jiangwu H.C. Starck Tungsten Products Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | China Molybdenum Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Ganzhou Haichuang Tungsten Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Hydrometallurg, JSC | Russian Federation | Conformant |
Tin | Metallo Spain S.L.U. | Spain | Conformant |
Tungsten | ACL Metais Eireli | Brazil | Conformant |
Tin | PT Menara Cipta Mulia | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tantalum | Jiangxi Tuohong New Raw Material | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Moliren Ltd. | Russian Federation | Conformant |
Tin | PT Bangka Serumpun | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tin | PT Rajawali Rimba Perkasa | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tin | Luna Smelter, Ltd. | Rwanda | Conformant |
Tin | PT Tinindo Inter Nusa | Indonesia | Conformant |
Tungsten | Ganzhou Jiangwu Ferrotungsten Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Jiangxi Xinsheng Tungsten Industry Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Jiangxi Tonggu Non-ferrous Metallurgical & Chemical Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Malipo Haiyu Tungsten Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Xiamen Tungsten (H.C.) Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Unecha Refractory metals plant | Russian Federation | Conformant |
Tungsten | Xinfeng Huarui Tungsten & Molybdenum New Material Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Fujian Ganmin RareMetal Co., Ltd. | China | Conformant |
Tungsten | Lianyou Metals Co., Ltd. | Taiwan, Province of China | Conformant |
Tin | Fabrica Auricchio Industria e Comercio Ltda. | Brazil | Conformant |
Tungsten | Asia Tungsten Products Vietnam Ltd. | Viet Nam | Conformant |
Tantalum | Global Advanced Metals Boyertown | United States of America | Conformant |
Annex II |
List of countries of origin of Conflict Minerals |
Åland Islands |
Andorra |
Angola |
Argentina |
Australia |
Austria |
Belarus |
Belgium |
Bolivia (Plurinational State of) |
Brazil |
Burundi |
Cambodia |
Canada |
Central African Republic |
Chile |
China |
Colombia |
Congo |
Democratic Republic of Congo |
Djibouti |
Ecuador |
Egypt |
Eritrea |
Estonia |
Ethiopia |
France |
Germany |
Guinea |
Guyana |
Hong Kong |
Hungary |
India |
Indonesia |
Ireland |
Israel |
Italy |
Japan |
Kazakhstan |
Kenya |
Korea |
Kyrgyzstan |
Luxembourg |
Madagascar |
Malaysia |
Mexico |
Mongolia |
Morocco |
Mozambique |
Myanmar |
Namibia |
Netherlands |
Niger |
Nigeria |
Panama |
Papua New Guinea |
Peru |
Philippines |
Poland |
Portugal |
Russian Federation |
Rwanda |
Sierra Leone |
Singapore |
Slovakia |
Slovenia |
South Africa |
South Sudan |
Spain |
Sudan |
Suriname |
Sweden |
Switzerland |
Taiwan |
Tanzania |
Thailand |
Uganda |
United Kingdom |
United States |
Uzbekistan |
Viet Nam |
Zambia |
Zimbabwe |