Mining company Vale and its associates have reportedly finalized the first blockchain-based iron sale. 

Specifically, as revealed via the firm’s official web page, Vale has reportedly completed the selling of 176,000 tons of iron ore to Nanjing Iron & Steel, sending the material en route from China to Malaysia. 

Vale and its associates have reportedly utilized the blockchain platform Contour for the issuance of a letter of credit. Shipping documents and an electronic bill of lading – a list consisting details of all the shipped merchandise – were reportedly carried out via essDOC’s CargoDocs solution. 

The firm reportedly revealed it guarantees end-to-end security throughout all stages of the transactions, with visibility of documentation available in a real-time manner to stakeholders, based on blockchain. 

Vale reportedly disclosed that blockchain’s features help significantly bring down emails and paperwork involved in the process from all sides. 

“It is an important milestone towards the digitalisation 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,” Vale further claimed. 

Mining heavyweights have reportedly turned to blockchain as a viable solution for bringing up shipping efficiencies more and more. The BHP Group reportedly stated back in May that it plans to finalize the first blockchain-based iron ore sale with Baosteel.