Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
MineHub Technologies announced that BHP (ASX, LON: BHP) and China Baowu have completed their first iron ore trade on MineHub’s blockchain-based platform.
The platform is a decentralized digital system with underlying blockchain technology that connects buyers, sellers and service providers in mining and metals supply chains through shared information. The application allows the parties in a mineral transaction to virtually integrate their trade operations processes like contracting, logistics, specifications and financing services.
MineHub said the BHP-China Baowu deal is the first of a series of transactions with industry partners
In a press release, MineHub said that the BHP-China Baowu deal is the first of a series of transactions with various industry partners, as the company is working towards providing commodity supply chains with a fully digital end-to-end fulfillment process.
“Working with the world’s largest mining company and the world’s largest steel producer on designing the digital future of critical supply chains like iron ore is incredibly exciting,” Arnoud Star Busmann, CEO of MineHub, said in the media statement.
“This series of transactions, each focusing on different aspects of the post-trade process, will allow MineHub to incrementally expand the platform’s functionality and scalability into the iron ore and other mineral commodity markets, incorporating real-life user experience.”
According to Busmann, the Vancouver-based tech company is also developing and validating digital solutions in complementary settings and in collaboration with companies that work with base metals concentrates, structured finance and emissions tracking to further prove the value that can be created through digitalization.
“We will incorporate these learnings into the next MineHub release, planned for Q4 2020, and which will start to provide a solution to the increasingly urgent need for industry-wide digitalization, by boosting both safety, transparency and resilience of critical supply chains,” the executive said.
“Especially as current pandemic events and fraud cases in the commodity trading industry are causing a step-change in the adoption of digital solutions.”
