ING and MineHub work on blockchain automation mining industry

MineHub, a company that develops innovative technology for the mining industry, is going to develop a new solution in collaboration with IBM, ING and a number of other mining companies. This solution has to automate a large part of the supply chain in the mining sector, so that many costs can be saved.

The global mining industry is worth about $ 1.8 trillion and suffers from inefficiencies due to manual processes. By developing a blockchain solution, more transparency and automation will be brought into the supply chain. As a result, every component of the supply chain can be viewed and relevant documents can be digitized.

One of the first places where the solution will be implemented is the Mexican Pensaquito mine. When raw materials are mined in the mine, a variety of information is put on the blockchain. When the raw materials are transported, every step is registered there and all parties can see what exactly happens to them.

The platform will use smart contracts to automate transactions, which is particularly useful for the financing aspect of mining. An important player in this area is ING Bank, a large bank within the mining sector. Arnout van Heukelem, Global Head of Metals and Mining at ING said:

As a world leader in banking in the metal and mining sector, we feel many of the operational challenges our customers face. Blockchain has the potential to reduce or even overcome this, as evidenced by our pioneering work in energy with VAKT, in trade finance with Komgo and Voltron, and in the agricultural commodities sector. I am pleased to work with MineHub and help our customers in the metals and mining sector to reduce their costs, increase transparency and contribute to sustainable production and trade.

The solution is built on top of the IBM Blockchain Platform, which is powered by Hyperledger Fabric. MineHub and IBM are planning to investigate even more use cases and to expand the platform further.