RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK – IBM is participating in a pilot project to track minerals such as cobalt that utilizes blockchain technology, the goal being to “trace and validate” a number of minerals used in consumer projects.
Ford Motor Company also is part of the program, which was announced Wednesday.
A target is cobalt produced in conflict-torn Congo with an end result being to help prevent use of cobalt and other minerals that are mined by children and are “responsibly produced, traded and processed.” Cobalt is in “high demand,” IBM noted, for use in lithium-ion batteries that are used in a wide variety of products. The Congo is a major source for cobalt.
“With the growing demand for cobalt, this group has come together with clear objectives to illustrate how blockchain can be used for greater assurance around social responsibility in the mining supply chain,” said Manish Chawla, general manager of Global Industrial Products Industry at IBM. “The initial work by these organizations will be used as a precedent for the rest of the industry to be further extended to help ensure transparency around the minerals going into our consumer goods.”
Blockchain workflow (Graphic courtesy of the Center for Global Development)
Other participants in the program are Huayou Cobalt, LG Chem and RCS Global.
“We remain committed to transparency across our global supply chain,” said Lisa Drake, vice president of global purchasing and powertrain operations, Ford Motor Company. “By collaborating with other leading industries in this network, our intent is to use state-of-the-art technology to ensure materials produced for our vehicles will help meet our commitment to protecting human rights and the environment.”
IBM is among the global leaders in development of blockchain technology.
“For this pilot based on a simulated sourcing scenario, Cobalt produced at Huayou’s industrial mine site in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) will be traced through the supply chain as it travels from mine and smelter to LG Chem’s cathode plant and battery plant in South Korea, and finally into a Ford plant in the United States,” IBM said in the announcement. “An immutable audit trail will be created on the blockchain, which will include corresponding data to provide evidence of the cobalt production from mine to end manufacturer.”
IBM employs several thousand people across North Carolina.
More details about the blockchain project are available online.
