Vale Completed The First Ever Iron Ore Transaction Over Blockchain

Mining firm Vale and its accomplices finished its first iron sale over blockchain.

As per an announcement on its site, Vale offered 176,000 tons of iron ore to Nanjing Iron and Steel, sending the material from Malaysia to China.

Vale and its partners utilized the blockchain platform Contour to give a letter of credit. Shipping documentation and an electronic bill of filling — a list of all the goods shipped — were handled through essDOC’s CargoDocs solution.

The company said it guaranteed start to finish security in the transaction with the real-time visibility to the stakeholder documentation available on blockchain technology. Vale noted using blockchain drastically reduced emails and paperwork the parties had to exchange.

“It is an important milestone towards the digitization of the sales and trade process, bringing innovation to the traditional paper-intensive trade transactions and offering a better service to the clients as well as predictability in the steel value chain,” the company said in the statement.

Mining gaints have been hoping to utilize blockchain to ease shipping inefficiencies. The BHP Group declared in May it wanted to finish its first blockchain iron ore sales with Baosteel. The company has for some time been keen on the technology and has done a pilot test with Japanese delivery firm NYK to check feasible biofuels.