Nornickel digitalises transaction process, making metal provenance transparent

Using the latest digital technology, Nornickel has taken a big step towards making the provenance of metals transparent.

A fund created by Norilsk Nickel, the world’s largest producer of palladium and high-grade nickel, has issued its first metal contract tokens to two major industrial partners – Traxys and Umicore  – setting the stage for the new era of digital transactions, which will optimise supply chain efficiency and transparency.

The Global Palladium Fund (GPF) issued the digital instruments via the global tokenisation platform Atomyze, backed by a pool of international investors.

Digital ecosystem

Traxys and Umicore took up the offer after the mining giant, which is also a major producer of platinum and copper, announced its strategy to integrate into a digital ecosystem designed to give ultimate provenance and traceability to its metals.

“Nornickel is developing and setting new standards by digitalising market transactions,” says Anton Berlin, Nornickel’s vice president, sales and distribution.

“The tokens issued by the Global Palladium Fund on the Atomyze platform will allow it to deliver Nornickel’s products to customers in a more efficient and transparent way. We are confident that it will provide the industry with the necessary tools to guarantee responsible sourcing.”

Atomyze uses Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to tokenise assets in digital form, providing accessibility, reducing costs, and increasing transparency.

GPF, the platform’s first client, is issuing tokens covering the whole range of metals produced by Nornickel — via the Atomyze tokenisation platform operated by Tokentrust, a Swiss-based fintech company aimed at digitising and tokenising the multifaceted commodities industry.

Flexible and sustainable

Alan Docter, chairman of Traxy, says: “The Atomyze tokenisation platform has the potential to revolutionise the industrial commodity market. We are excited about this opportunity to be one of the first to use the tokenisation platform, and believe that this new ecosystem can make our daily operations more flexible, sustainable and profitable.”

Senior Vice President, Precious Metals Management and Umicore Marketing Services Bernhard Fuchs adds: “We recognise the value that the Atomyze platform is delivering: efficiency, cost optimisation and flexibility that tokenisation brings along — it’s a leap forward towards new levels of business efficiency as well as multi-layer-documentation, and we are looking forward to setting off on this innovative path.”

The Global Palladium Fund was set up by Norilsk Nickel, its sole investor, to foster the mining giant’s global product distribution.

Its mission is to broaden access to the world’s precious, base and rare earth metals and to facilitate the development of world-changing technologies while ensuring responsible use of the natural resources.

This content has been produced in collaboration with an Emerging Europe partner organisation.