About
Learn more about EU-funded project MaDiTraCe and what it aims to achieve.
Bringing greater transparency, traceability & sustainability to raw material supply chains
Global commodity flows and regulatory frameworks pertaining to critical raw materials (CRMs) are high on the European economic and political agenda. Companies are also facing increased pressure to responsibly extract, process and source materials as initiatives such as the EU Battery regulation and the EU Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence come into force.This makes standardised certification schemes, transparent and secure traceability, and decentralised confidential data handling imperative.
Launched in January 2023, MADITRACE is a 36-month European project coordinated by BRGM (French Geological Survey) that aims to reinforce the transparency, traceability, and sustainability of complex supply chains of critical raw materials including cobalt, lithium, natural graphite and rare earth elements. Bringing together 14 partners from 7 countries, the project will develop and integrate technological solutions for traceability and certification into a Digital Product Passport. These solutions will enable key industry players to prove the reliability of their sustainability claims, comply with current regulation and anticipate future policies.
View results
For a sustainable energy transition
Material fingerprinting will be carried out for four key commodities found in battery and magnet supply chains for e-mobility and wind energy development.
Cobalt
Used to develop batteries, super alloys, catalysts and magnets.
Lithium
Used in battery, glass, ceramic, steel and aluminium production.
Natural graphite
Used in battery production as well as in refractories for steelmaking.
Rare earth elements
Key to the production of magnets for electric motors and batteries.
Project pillars
- Traceability
- Transparency
- Sustainability
- Certification
Traceability
MaDiTraCe will demonstrate the potential of material fingerprinting and artificial tagging as independent mechanisms for supporting mineral traceability procedures and claims as they pertain to cobalt, lithium, natural graphite and rare earth elements. These four critical raw materials are found in supply chains supporting the production of batteries and magnets for e-mobility and wind turbines.
Learn more about fingerprinting technology
Transparency
The project will provide complete coverage of the supply chains of these four critical raw materials from exploration, mining and processing to labelling final products and recycling post-consumer products. This will be achieved through the full digitalisation of document-based traceability enabled by Digital Product Passport technology, a blockchain-based means of storing decentralised and digitally verifiable data.
Learn more about Digital Product Passports
Sustainability
As companies face stringent demands for transparency, traceability and sustainability in the manufacturing of their products, they require reliable information from producers about the origin of their raw materials, processes and compliance with regulation. Reliable data is also needed to conduct carbon footprint studies and for performance improvement.
Learn more about EU principles for sustainable raw materials
Certification
MaDiTraCe will build on the CERA 4in1 certification system developed in the CERA project funded by EIT Raw Materials. This end-to-end system takes into account the entire mineral value chain and will aim to streamline the certification landscape for mineral raw materials. In this way, industry players and consumers can count on one complete certification system.
Learn more about CERA