We are delighted to hear leading companies have begun monitoring the entire supply chain of Democratic Republic of Congo cobalt. We were aware IBM was using blockchain to trace food supplies for Carrefour and Walmart. Now Ford, IBM, LG Chem, and China’s Huayou Cobalt are using blockchain to track DRC cobalt shipments. Will blockchain technology succeed? We hope so!
So How Will Blockchain Help Solve the Problem?
A blockchain is a list of procedural steps we call ‘blocks”. Each block has a timestamp and is back linked to the previous event. This makes it possible to monitor every stage in a process. How will blockchain work in this instance?
The pilot project began quietly in December 2018, and is tracing cobalt in secure bags. The journey begins at Huayou’s cobalt mine and smelter in Democratic of Congo. From there, it goes to LG Chem’s cathode and battery plant in South Korea. And then finally it arrives at a Ford plant in the US. Blockchain will preserve the mineral’s original source anonymized in the smelter.
IBM Following Up On Chemical Intelligence with AI
IBM is investigating the potential of analyzing ‘chemical fingerprints’ in parallel. It hopes artificial intelligence will enable it to identify the origin of a batch of cobalt. The aim is to allow ethical artisanal miners to join the value chain.
Business Live released a report from Durban, South Africa where most DRC cobalt leaves the continent. It says companies using cobalt, especially in batteries are under increasing consumer pressure. Their customers are concerned they could be unwittingly promoting child labor. There is also a distinct possibility cobalt is bank rolling ongoing civil conflict in the DRC.
“There is no fool-proof method, but you have to keep the ball moving forward,” IMB’s Manish Chawla told South Africa’s Business Live on January 16, 2019. “Blockchain has proven to be a very effective technology in raising the bar.”
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