Cobalt Blockchain Inc. (COBC) and DLT Labs Inc. have finalized a joint venture agreement to commercialize Mintrax, a fully-functional blockchain platform providing secure and transparent methods for tracking the provenance of metals and minerals through the entire mining supply chain, from source to end-user.

Mintrax is the first enterprise-grade blockchain platform built from the ground up to ensure compliance with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development due diligence framework for the provenance of ethically-sourced minerals. The transactional flow of Mintrax is based on COBC's operational experience trading certified-conflict-free metals in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and work with due diligence program-design firm BetterChain, as well as DLT's deep-bench supply chain and logistics experience with IBM's Hyperledger Fabric blockchain.

COBC intends to provide conflict-free cobalt to address burgeoning demand for advanced batteries in smartphones and electric vehicles and is gearing up to begin cobalt trading early in the fourth quarter of 2018. COBC holds export trading licenses for cobalt, copper and 3T metals (tin, tantalum, tungsten) from the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

While the new platform is being implemented first for cobalt, it is designed for companies trading in all base and precious minerals, including for 3T metals, diamonds and gold.