Financing the Future: Impact and Opportunity in the Metals Industry

Independent, value chain intelligence for commodities

Africa is becoming more pivotal to global commodity supply and demand, spanning mining, refining ambitions, infrastructure growth and rising power investment. In parallel, trade and regulation are reshaping competitiveness, from carbon-related requirements such as EU CBAM to a growing focus on in-country beneficiation and policy-led export controls. 

CRU helps organisations navigate these shifts with integrated, cross-commodity insight grounded in rigorous economics and real-world supply chain dynamics.

Connecting geo-politics to operational decisions - stress-testing costs, benchmarking assets, tracking trade flow risks and understanding how global themes translate into regional opportunities and constraints.

Mining Indaba 2026

Mining Indaba was very positive, with a clear focus on immediate action for the energy transition. Key themes included overcoming logistical barriers to unlock Africa’s mineral wealth and a strong push to develop the battery metals value chain locally. 

Key takeaways

The continent's role in supplying critical materials like copper and lithium has moved from a future possibility to a present-day priority, creating both significant challenges and opportunities for the industry. 

  • Focus on Near-Term Action: The conversation has moved beyond 2050 targets to what producers and governments are doing now to supply critical materials.
  • Logistics as the Main Hurdle: There was a strong consensus that logistics and infrastructure are the most significant challenges to unlocking Africa's mineral wealth. New partnerships are forming to address getting materials out and essential inputs in.
  • Developing In-Country Value: A powerful trend is the drive to build out the processing value chain within Africa, particularly for battery metals, to maximise economic benefit on the continent.
Download the Commodity Outlook for 2026 to discover more

Session 2

10:20 – 11:00  Commodity outlooks from base metals team

Market outlooks for key LME commodities

11:00 – 11:45  Industry panel discussion with Tim Hawk, Societe Generale and James Fryer, Ingio/ MIRA and audience Q&A 

11:45 – 12:00  Closing remarks, summary and key takeaways

12:00 – 13:00  Networking

13:00 –  Event closes

_

Industry Speakers

width=800

Session 1 Speakers

width=800

Session 2 Speakers

width=800

Related Content

Detailed agenda and speaker information will be added to this page in the coming weeks so stay tuned for further updates. In the meantime, why not check out some of the on-demand content from our 2024 event?