The world’s largest palladium and high-grade nickel producer, Nornickel, has partnered with chemicals and sustainable technology company Johnson Matthey to supply the critical metals and minerals needed for Matthey’s electric vehicle battery production in Finland. The partnership will also explore the implementation of blockchain technology for the cobalt and nickel supply chain.
Both Nornickel and Johnson Matthey are committed to improving the sustainability of production in their respective fields. Nornickel announced plans to increase its sustainable nickel and cobalt production in Finland earlier this month, and Johnson Matthey’s new commercial plant in Finland (the company’s second in the country) is completely powered by renewable energy.
The potential implementation of blockchain in supply chain management would enhance the transparency between the metals supply chain and consumers and further promote sustainable changes to production processes.
“Our memorandum should enable us to identify mutually beneficial sustainability initiatives that support the ambition of achieving the most sustainable battery materials value chain in Europe,” said Nornickel’s President Vladimir Potanin.
Nornickel’s idea is to tokenize the smart contracts across the supply chain using blockchain. This could facilitate the traceability of metal deliveries and, through extensive and reliable auditing, ensure the credibility of ESG credentials such as carbon footprint and other certificates that prove responsible sourcing.
On a related note, Nornickel is the founder of Tokentrust, a company aiming to digitize and tokenize commodities for trading. In January of this year, it commercially launched its platform, Atomyze. Its purpose is to address the growing interest in commodity markets and the need to make them more liquid and transparent to consumers. Atomyze has been a member of Hyperledger’s consortium for over a year.
Meanwhile, the Bank of Russia approved Nornickel’s request to develop a digital asset tokenization platform at the beginning of last year. Additionally, the company recently joined IBM’s Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network.
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