Trafigura, one of the world’s largest physical commodity trading companies, and Circulor, the leading provider of supply chain provenance and emissions tracking services, have today signed a Master Services Agreement to provide traceability and CO2 tracking for Trafigura’s nickel and cobalt trading division.

Under the agreement, Trafigura and Circulor will develop an innovative programme to track dynamically and attribute CO2 emissions throughout Trafigura’s nickel and cobalt supply chains for customers, in particular electric vehicle manufacturers.

Separately, Trafigura and Circulor are working together to support Trafigura’s responsible sourcing and traceability programme.  Circulor will play a critical role in supporting the physical tracking and tracing of material, as well as the communication of ESG data relevant to the application and integration of, for example, ‘OECD Due Diligence Guidance’ and the ‘UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights’ to its value chain.

The objective for both projects is to work with a range of upstream producers and downstream receivers progressively to integrate and communicate responsible sourcing due diligence and CO2 tracking data into their respective value chains via Circulor’s proven Blockchain traceability platform.

These projects complement the work of the Finnish Minerals Group (FMG) and Circulor at the Terrafame nickel and cobalt mine in Finland, in which Trafigura’s Galena Asset Management is a minority shareholder, to advance the industrial deployment of traceability and emissions tracking for FMG, its portfolio companies and its automotive sector customers.

Circulor, which offers a comprehensive and mature Blockchain solution, first conducted a pilot in 2018 on the tracing of tantalum from Rwanda in partnership with the Rwandan Mining, Petroleum and Gas Board.  Circulor’s portfolio of clients include nickel and cobalt producers such as BHP and FMG, service providers such as SGS and automotive manufacturers including Volvo Cars, Daimler, Jaguar Land Rover and Polestar.

Jeremy Weir, Trafigura’s Executive Chairman and CEO, said: “As a key supplier of the vital commodities our customers need, Trafigura has invested significantly in developing tools to identify and mitigate social and human rights risks and environmental impacts, including carbon emissions, in global commodity supply chains.

“Circulor’s offering is tried-and-tested and their expertise and market reach are internationally respected.  Today’s agreement is an important next step in improving transparency in commodity markets, and will enable us to offer our customers responsibly-sourced commodities, with a clearly-defined carbon specification.”

Douglas Johnson-Poensgen, Founder and CEO of Circulor, said: “Our mission is to bring greater transparency to the most complex industrial supply chains, in order to prevent the exploitation of people and planet.  By working with the world’s pre-eminent metals trader at this scale, we can together establish a new benchmark for responsible and sustainably sourced battery materials.

“There are very real benefits to this work, including assurance of responsible supply, understanding and clarity of CO2 emissions at different points in supply chains, and the provision of ESG data. This agreement paves the way for a future in which we help Trafigura excel in meeting its ambitions.”