Metals Exchange Forms Blockchain Group to Modernize Minerals Industry

A Switzerland-based trading platform for metal concentrates is forming a blockchain consortium aimed to streamline supply chains in the minerals industry.

To that end, Open Mineral – a startup established by a group of former employees from commodity trading and mining giant Glencore – said it has already started working with the ethereum startup ConsenSys to develop a platform dubbed Minerac. The firm did not disclose the names of the mining and financial firms that have so far agreed to join the consortium.

According to a report from Reuters, the project aims to have every party involved in mineral mining and trading logistics – from mining to shipping to storage and trading – participating as nodes of the new blockchain platform.

The goal of the project is to get rid of the existing complex and paper-heavy processes within the industry, and ultimately to allow the different parties to obtain updated logistics data simultaneously and transact trade documentation using smart contracts embedded in the blockchain.

As supply chain data is moved onto the distributed network, the report indicates, mining products can be traced with unique identification data that provides their point of their origin, allowing compliance with local laws.

Founded in 2017, the startup mainly serves to eliminate intermediaries for mining firms and smelters in a bid to reduce their costs when trading mineral concentrates.

The news of the new consortium comes just months after Open Mineral secured $2.5 million in a funding round in April, which was said to be specifically used for blockchain development, according to a news report from TechCrunch at the time.

Smelter image via Shutterstock