Case Study: Circulor achieves first-ever mine-to-manufacturer traceability of a conflict mineral with Hyperledger Fabric (Customer: Circulor; Solution provider: Hyperledger)

Circulor achieves first-ever-mine-tomanufacturer traceability of a conflict mineral with Hyperledger Fabric

Circulor, a UK-based traceability firm, was tasked with solving a critical supply-chain challenge: prove beyond doubt that tantalum ore from Rwanda was mined, transported, and processed under OECD-approved, conflict-free conditions with no child or slave labor. To replace error-prone paper records and deliver verifiable mine-to-manufacturer provenance, Circulor built a permissioned blockchain solution powered by Hyperledger (Hyperledger Fabric), combined with on-the-ground controls like ID/photo checks and tamper-proof QR/NFC tags.

Circulor’s Hyperledger-based system pairs its URU facial-recognition checks, GPS-tagged sacks, mass-balance controls and Circulor Protocol smart contracts with mobile and desktop apps to record each custody event immutably. The solution went into production in fall 2018 at three Rwandan mines and a refinery run by Power Resources Group, supporting several hundred transactions per day (with plans to scale to thousands), delivering the industry’s first mine-to-manufacturer traceability for tantalum, lowering compliance costs, reassuring regulators and buyers, and helping boost revenues for Rwandan exporters. Hyperledger underpins the enterprise-grade ledger that makes this verifiable provenance possible.

Circulor

Douglas Johnson-Poensgen

Chief Executive Officer