Singapore at dusk, image by MOLPIX, Shuttlestock
The MMTA International Minor Metals Conference 2024
In this issue you will find information about the MMTA’s International Minor Metals Conference, including programme and speakers and members standing for MMTA board elections. MMTA members are encouraged to read the MMTA annual review.
If you are registered for the conference, please download the conference app. You can find the download link in your email, of search for MMTA on Apple Store for Apple devices, or on Google Play for Android. On the app, you will find the full delegate list along with the calendar schedule and networking features.
On Monday 17th April you can meet other delegates ahead of the conference sessions at the Welcome Reception kindly sponsored by CCMA LLC from 6pm at the Poolside on Level 4 of the Pan Pacific Hotel. And on Tuesday 18th, an evening of networking events kicks off at 5:30pm with pre-dinner drinks reception sponsored by Advanced Alloy Services Ltd, followed from 6:30pm by the MMTA’s Gala Dinner sponsored by ICD Group and Donald McArthy Trading PTE Ltd.
Minor metals and mining — what makes investors tick?
This issue is packed with insights on minor metals and rare earth markets. When the MMTA was founded more than 50 years ago, few understood the term “minor metals”. Most of the around 50 elements this term covers are mined as by-products of other materials, but there is nothing “minor” about the raw materials that underpin strategic technologies such as clean energy generation, information technology, electric vehicles, aerospace, space exploration and defence. It is mostly minor metals and rare earth elements that com-prise what is now commonly termed critical raw materials. with production often centred in few countries or regions.
Minor metals such as cobalt, lithium and rare earths, along with base metals like nickel and copper, are key to global net zero aspirations and energy security — enabling transport electrification and renewable power generation and storage through battery and permanent magnet technologies in particular. One would expect institutional investors to rush in to make the most of the opportunities that he industry producing these raw materials offers. And if they do not— why not?
Investor caution around mining of critical raw materials is not the contradiction it seems: humanity cannot mine its way to sustainability at the expense of the environment— or of human society itself. Responsible environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices are not just an empty acronym— these are benchmarks of a sustainable industry and a standard requirement for modern ethical investment.
As a survey of the world’s leading investors has found. In this issue, Metals for Humanity, a specialist consultancy that de-signs and implements strategic social programmes in partnership with mining companies, shares the outcomes of its survey of 150 leading asset managers, conducted in partnership with FT Longitude, a research agency in the Financial Times portfolio. Read their article here for eye-opening insights.
Also on the topic of ESG, this Crucible carries guest feature from the International Lithium Association on its new guidance for calculating the Product Carbon Footprint of lithium.
Metals, markets and more
Battery materials are not all about nickel, cobalt and lithium. In this issue, the industry’s specialist consultancy Benchmark Mineral Intelligence examines how battery demand is reshaping the traditionally steel-driven market for manganese.
Also in this issue, CPM digs into tantalum trade flows data, Fastmarkets runs through the reasons for the REE price drop, and Argus addresses magnesium’s market moves. Hear more of their insights at upcoming events — please log into the MMTA Member Benefits page to make the most of them.
