Digital provenance company Everledger has partnered with product verification Source Certain International (SCI) to enhance transparency in the mining industry. The initiative combines SCI’s unique chemical fingerprint technology TSW Trace with Everledger’s blockchain traceability.
Metals and mining supply chains are notorious for human rights violations and unsustainable practices. The consumer desire to understand how minerals are extracted is a relatively recent thing.
“‘Out of sight, out of mind’ has been the business-as-usual approach for some metals and minerals supply chains,” said Cameron Scadding, Managing Director of SCI. “Our partnership with Everledger is a great step towards more transparency in critical and strategic minerals, metals, and more generally the battery supply chain.”
The shift in consumer demand alongside tighter government regulations is changing standards in the industry. Demand for traceability rightfully forces mining companies to conduct ethical processes across supply chains. For companies, the value from these practices can be demonstrated through irrefutable transparency solutions.
SCI and Everledger’s offering is attempting to set itself apart from the competition by combining forensic evidence technology with blockchain. TSW Trace verifies the product’s provenance through scientific analysis of its chemical composition and identifies the environmental origins of the mineral. This creates a unique fingerprint of the product, which is logged on Everledger’s blockchain platform to trace it across the supply chain.
Everledger conducted a similar project based on blockchain DNA tagging for leather goods.
SCI and Everledger each have experience in the diamond sector, and Everledger has been involved in electric vehicle battery recycling, where cobalt is an important mineral. Both firms are part of the Trusted Supply Chain project by the Australian Future Battery Industries Cooperative Research Centre.
Meanwhile, mineral traceability solutions are in high demand. Re|Source, a cobalt traceability solution, is being trialed by Glencore, CMOC, and ERG. Rio Tinto launched an aluminum traceability solution earlier this year. Beyond mineral traceability, Letter of Credit blockchain Contour has partnered with MineHub to enable trade finance in mining supply chains.
