Europe Plans to Launch CERA Platform for Tungsten, Cobalt and Lithium

Europe plans to launch the CERA (Certification of Raw Materials) platform for tungsten, cobalt and lithium, based on blockchain to ensure the consistency of environmental, social and economic impact assessment standards throughout the raw material value chain, according to the website of the Ministry of Natural Resources of the People's Republic of China.

CERA (Certification of Raw Materials) was proposed by the German engineering and consulting firm DMT Group and has received approval from the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (JRC), and the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT RawMaterials), Volkswagen, Fairphone, and the support from other European research institutions.

The article points out that companies are facing pressure from consumers and investors to prove that raw materials are not violating human rights records while tracking the entire raw material production process is a challenge. At present, at least 40 different certification methods for the mining industry alone, and there are more authentications among the entire value chain. Some certifications are specific to geographic region, process or humanitarian concern, while others tackle a single mineral.

Andreas Hucke, Project Director of Certification of Raw Materials, Head of Raw Materials Sustainability at DMT, believes that an additional barrier for the current certifications to work is that most of them are complex, expensive and inconsistent. As a result, different countries, different minerals and different companies adopt different approaches in terms of sustainability and ethics. However, CERA could solve this problem. The platform aiming at providing a platform for certification of raw materials such as tungsten, cobalt, and lithium.

The article describes that the authentication process can be carried out using a private blockchain, and its verification and search will be available on a public blockchain. This technology is based on cryptocurrency transactions, providing data sharing through a network of different computers, rather than just a single organization.

At the end of this year, the CERA pilot project aims at solving the sustainable development of tungsten, lithium, and cobalt exploration and process will be officially launched in the coming weeks, The Europe-led global certification scheme for raw materials expected in 2020 and issuing the first certification in 2021.

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