Peer Ledger, a Halifax blockchain company, has struck a strategic partnership with the Swiss precious metals company known as PAMP to work together to remove conflict minerals from the global supply chain.

PAMP, whose full name is Produits Artistiques Métaux Précieux, has invested in Peer Ledger as part of the agreement, though the companies did not reveal the size of the investment. The Swiss company is one of the world’s largest precious metals companies and it will now integrate Peer Ledger’s Mimosi product into its systems.

Mimosi uses blockchain – the technology that underpins cryptocurrencies – to identify metals as they pass through the supply chain, from the mines to the smelters to the end-users. It’s important work because the metals industry wants to ensure conflict metals don’t make their way to the global market.

Conflict minerals are drawn from mines in war zones, most notably in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and are used to finance conflicts. As well as prolonging wars, the practice perpetuates forced labour, child labour and environmental degradation.

Using blockchain, Mimosi can provide detailed, verifiable reports to buyers, shippers, inspectors and others to show where a mineral came from and how it has traveled to market.  Peer Ledger will now be able to increase the effectiveness of Mimosi as it is integrated into the systems used by PAMP, the world’s largest bullion company.

Peer Ledger CEO Dawn Jutla said in a statement that the two companies will work together to address three challenges facing the industry: “The first critical challenge is gaining accurate and verifiable tracing of precious metal products back to the original sources  . . . The second critical challenge is to prevent the entry of counterfeit precious metal products in the supply chain. The third critical on-going challenge is to deal with environmental, social and governance factors, particularly the quality of human life.”

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PAMP is part of the MKS PAMP Group, one of the world's leading privately held precious metals groups, and has dominant positions in major precious metals markets. It is known primarily as a major fabricator and distributor of gold bars and coin blanks. Its clients include international gold mining companies, the jewelry industry, government mints, central and commercial banks and wholesale distributors.

“Our vision is for our combined technologies to coalesce the precious metals industry around a comprehensive solution to numerous issues,” said MKS PAMP Vice Chairman Mehdi Barkhordar in the statement. These include enabling artisanal miners to easily register their production, authenticating products at mine sites and allowing verification by refiners, vaults, manufacturers, end-users and consumers, he said.

Peer Ledger began two years ago when Jutla (a business professor who had led the Masters of Technology, Entrepreneurship and Innovation program at St. Mary’s University) and her husband Peter Bodorik (a computer science prof at Dalhousie University) launched a blockchain company.

The company now has two main products – Mimosi, which tracks items through supply chains, and Identity Bridge, which helps highly regulated industries like finance and pharma use blockchain in their employee access and identification systems.

The company is a Volta tenant, and its board includes investor Mike Durland, who has also backed such Halifax startups as TruLeaf Sustainable Agriculture and social media monitoring company LifeRaft.

In an email, Jutla described responsible minerals as Peer Ledger’s “beachhead” and said the partnership with PAMP will help companies fight the problem of conflict resources. But she added there are other businesses that Peer Ledger has its sights on.

“Our software is also ready for modernizing usable traceability and certification for responsible seafood, responsible farming of produce and livestock, and responsible forestry,” said Jutla. “These are all areas in which Atlantic Canadian companies lead and impact global supply chains."

Disclosure: Peter Moreira, a principal with Entrevestor, did communications work for Peer Ledger in 2017.