Rapid advances in blockchain technology are reinventing the way companies operate and deliver products and services to their clients.

These changes are particularly visible in the mining & metals industry, a sector that has been traditionally slow in adopting technological innovations. Yet blockchains and smart contracts, which to this point the sector has focused on as a source of productivity and transparency gains for the mining & metals global supply chain, could herald new sources of finance too.

Miners face a persistently challenging environment to raise equity and equity-like capital to fund ventures. According to the State of Mining Finance 2019 Report produced by the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada and junior financing tracker Oreninc, funds raised via equity in 2018 were at the lowest recorded level in the past decade, with equity funding dropping approximately 40 per cent from 2017 to 2018.

Could blockchain-based digital finance techniques provide a funding solution to miners? Read more in this report.