Four of the big names of their respective industries are coming together in project of monitoring cobalt supplies from Democratic Republic of Congo.
Ford, IBM, LG Chem and Huayou Cobalt will work together in the first of its kind blockchain project used to monitor supplies of cobalt from Congo.
RCS Global, a responsible sourcing group, will administer the pilot project aiming to help manufacturers to be sure that neither any child has worked nor any conflict has been arisen in the mining of the cobalt which they have been using in their lithium-ion batteries.
Consumers and investors have been remained pressurizing the companies to prove that sourcing of minerals which they are using in manufacturing their products have caused no violation of human rights, but challenge arise when companies have to track the movement of raw material throughout its journey from the mines to the end manufacturer.
On Wednesday the project, which quietly remained under process since December, was announced for monitoring supply of industrially mined cobalt from to all the way to the United States in shape of Ford’s batteries.
For electric vehicles and electronic devices, industries would likely be need huge quantities of the cobalt, supplies of which are concentrated in Congo, a country affected by civil war and political tension that resulted instability in the country and volatility in the nation.
RCS said that blockchain platform of the IBM could not only be used to include other mineral but will also join the traditional miners in Congo with the blockchain-based network of authorize participants.
Huayou’s industrial mine in Congo will place the mined cobalt in secure bags and input the details into a blockchain, afterward LG Chem will use it in manufacturing battery in South Korea and ship those batteries to Ford in the United States, and through the pilot project the cobalt will be traceable at every stage of the process.
