Argus Rare Earths & Critical Minerals Conference

• What does the US Government actually want to achieve through its critical minerals strategy?
• How are agencies such as DOE, DOD and Department of Commerce coordinating industrial policy?
• How is the government balancing domestic production with partnerships across allied nations?
• What should industry expect from the next phase of US critical minerals policy?

• How will US critical minerals strategy, the European Critical Raw Materials Act and other industrial policies reshape global supply chains over the next five years?
• Should governments support existing strategic supply chains alongside new capacity?
• Which government interventions – including Project Vault, strategic procurement, stockpiling and industrial policy – are most likely to deliver commercially viable non-China supply chains?
• Can governments coordinate international critical mineral partnerships, or will competition between the US, Europe, LATAM and Asia fragment non-China supply chains?

• What impact have China’s export controls had, and which critical minerals remain most affected?
• If China moves beyond export controls and competes more aggressively on price and capacity, how should industry respond?
• What happens when Chinese material inevitably re-enters global markets?
• Can Western producers remain commercially competitive, or will continued industrial policy and government support be essential?

• Can the industry establish trusted non-China price benchmarks and reduce reliance on Chinese-controlled pricing mechanisms?
• How do we create transparent pricing in markets where buyers cannot hedge exposure?
• How are export controls and regional trade flows reshaping price discovery?
• What will it take to build a liquid, transparent and commercially credible non-China rare earth market?

• Which non-China projects are genuinely likely to deliver commercial supply between 2027–2029?
• What does a commercially viable mine-to-magnet supply chain actually look like, and what lessons can emerging projects learn from existing supply chains?
• Where will the next generation of strategic rare earth supply come from, and which emerging regions have the greatest long-term potential?
• How can governments, investors and industry accelerate deployment without creating new bottlenecks?
• Once non-China supply chains have been built, how do we ensure they remain commercially competitive when Chinese material re-enters the market?

• What will it take for OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers to commit to purchasing non-China rare earth materials at scale?
• Will OEMs pay a premium for secure, diversified supply, or will cost continue to outweigh supply chain resilience?
• If buyers continue choosing the lowest-cost material, can non-China supply chains ever become commercially sustainable?
• Are long-term offtake agreements and strategic partnerships enough to unlock investment, or do new commercial models need to emerge?

A focus on processing, metallisation, alloy production and magnets

• Mining projects and oxide production are progressing but where is the next bottleneck: processing, separation, metallisation, alloy production or magnet manufacturing?
• Why has metallisation emerged as one of the biggest bottlenecks outside China, and what investment is needed to build commercially viable capacity?
• How do we avoid creating new bottlenecks as oxide production expands faster than downstream processing and metallisation capacity?
• Which technologies and process innovations have the greatest potential to make non-China processing, metallisation and magnet manufacturing commercially competitive?

• What will investors need to see before committing capital to projects expected to supply the market between 2027 and 2030?
• How can projects secure investment despite opaque pricing and long development timelines?
• What role should governments, export credit agencies, strategic investors and buyers play in de-risking projects?
• Can new financing models including strategic procurement, long-term offtakes and price support mechanisms unlock commercially viable supply chains?

• What is Project Vault and why was it created?
• Which projects and supply chains are likely to qualify?
• How will strategic procurement and government support actually work?
• What should industry expect over the next 12-24 months?