Argus Metals Week

• How has oversupply impacted lithium pricing?
• How are reductions in Chinese government subsidies impacting the supply and demand landscape?
• The chicken and the egg: Outlook on investment and supply

• The LME
• Pricing and risk management for electric vehicle battery materials
• Assessing LME’s offering across these metals

• Assessing the nickel market
• Nickel projects overview
• Overview of current and projected consumption

• Direct conversion of LiOH bringing hard rock on par with brines
• Key Steps to battery grade purity in hard rocks
• Cost structure of brine and hard rock processing

• Are supply predictions realistic in light of limited investment across the supply chain?
• Can investment in production increase while demand is falling?
• Where should investment come from: Private, the state or within the supply chain?

Panellist:
Michael Insulan, Senior Market Analyst, Eurasian Resources Group
Ana Cabral Gardner, Managing Partner, A:10 Investimentos

• Production growth and stage two of the project
• Risk and reward of brownfield lithium developments, why lithium is different to other commodities
• An analysis of new lithium supply and timing

- Opportunities and challenges
- The emerging global ecosystem
- Developing complex systems and opening doors to innovators
- Pushing the design envelope for high-performance, low-cost and safe energy storage solutions

- Lithium market dynamics
- Game theory scenario analysis
- Strategic options for producers through the lens of the lithium cost curve

- Current supply picture
- Planned expansions by existing producers
- New production
- Are there sufficient lithium units to meet demand?
- Future prospects and outlook

- Analysing EV batteries
- Assessing the Asian market:Japan, South Korea and China
- Examining the role of the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Future demand and outlook

- Materials value chain analysis: A conceptual introduction
- Electric vehicle battery markets: Global demand projection
- Battery raw materials markets: Demand vs supply projections
- Strategic supply options: How to diversify risk for the downstream sector
- Battery value chain development: Recent perspectives from Germany

- How far behind Asia is European cell manufacturing?
- What barriers does Europe need to overcome to catch up with Asia?
- Cathode material production: Regional overview in the region
- Can cell manufacturing in Europe be sustainable?

Panellists:

Vincent Ledoux Pedailles, Executive Director, Infinity Lithium Corporation

Koji Sakamoto, Assistant Manager, Sumitomo Corporation

These roundtables offer you a chance to join the group of your choice and be led in discussion by an industry expert. It is an ideal opportunity to ease into the more informal networking of the evening, enjoying a drink while you meet delegates with similar interests and concerns. The conference team will be in touch with you in the run-up to the event to ask you to select your table of choice — if you would like to suggest a topic or leader for a discussion, please contact Tonika.Campbell@argusmedia.com

Roundtable one: Lithium

Expert leader:  Elbert Loois, Managing Partner, HiTech Materials Advisory

Roundtable two: Nickel and cobalt

Expert leader: Nicole Willing, Editor, Argus Metals International, Argus

Roundtable three: Alternative energy for power

Expert leader: Francisco Carranza, Managing Director, Nissan Europe

These roundtables offer you a chance to join the group of your choice and be led in discussion by an industry expert. It is an ideal opportunity to ease into the more informal networking of the evening, enjoying a drink while you meet delegates with similar interests and concerns.The round-table discussions will last 45 minutes, taking the time to address looming questions and concerns in the industry. The final 15 minutes will be for summaries and conclusions, when each round-table leader will round up the key findings and present back to the other tables.

Round table one: Damage or control: Are US and China trade relations having any long-term impacts on exports and arbitrage?
Roundtable leader: Mihail Manasov, Head of Trading, RJH Trading

Roundtable two: No deal?!: Will demand be affected on a global or local scale?
Roundtable leader: Candida Owens, Founder and Director, CONDOR Minerals Bolivia

Round table three: When will scrap and recycling be a viable option for supply?
Roundtable leader: Denis Gorbachev, Director International Business, WOLFRAM Company

• An update on minor metals supply and demand dynamics
• New resource and mining acquisitions
• Forecast and outlook

• Production outlook and barriers to trade
• Tin price evolution and the role of exchanges
• Diversifying supply chain and regional competition

• Are Chinese and US trade relations having an adverse effect on supply to the US?
• In case of no deal: What will be the impact on automotive manufacturing and what does this mean for tin demand in the UK?
• How are large supply countries outside of trade relations responding to market disruption: Spotlight on the DRC and Indonesia

Panellists:

Maarten Gassmann, Head of Asian Business, Grondmet

Ran Maimon, President, Metal-Tech

Mihail Manasov, Head of Trading, RJH Trading

• What is the outlook for usage of concentrate and producers in China?
• Requirements of tungsten consumption and requirement for supply
• Outlook of tungsten applications markets

• An overview of key trends in the metals sector and how they link to changing practice and criteria
• Assessing code of conduct: Where are we now and where are we going?
• LME guidance: How can joint initiatives raise the bar on industry practice and performance?

• Analysing the global scale for raw material demand
• Assessing new applications and changing use cases
• Highlighting the advantages of the usage of the tantalum in the current manufacturing climate

• Powders for increasing performance in tantalum capacitors
• Development of emerging technologies for utilising tantalum functional performance
• Prospects for material industrialisation

• A small investment can improve the bottom line
• Measuring is key to control of process optimization
• Real-time metal feedback: improving quality, planning, safety and preventing unknown losses

• The product reserves of ore mining
• Investments overseas to reduce downstream costs
• Streamlining supply chain processes

• Tin and tungsten trends of supply: How are traceability and changing sourcing practices impacting supply
• Assessing the needs of the consumers customers: What are the construction and automotive industries looking for?
• The requirements as a consumer and a supplier: Legal framework and regulation

• The impact of illegal mining on exports: Increasing regulation and certification on tin mining
• Strategies to reduce risk across the supply chain in mineral resourcing
• Central African current supply and forecast: How does that impact the global supply picture

• How can separation technology be used for critical materials sourcing?
• Converting oxides into metals
• How can lessons learned from other minerals be applied to the growing criteria of critical materials?

• Assessing the supply picture for battery metals
• Will supply and pricing ever meet demand and consumer product pricing?
• Forecast for battery metal consumer products

• Is the market getting closer to EV and battery market expectations?
• Will there be investment in nickel mining despite a reduction in manufacturing and end use investment?
• Is the important of nickel being shadowed by cobalt market movement?

Panel chair: Maxwell Shumba, Director of Corporate EHS and Product Stewardship, Borchers America

Panellists:

Alina Racu, Market Analyst, Nornickel
Michael Insulan, Senior Market Analyst, Eurasian Resources Group
Anthony Milewski, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman, Conic Metals
Martim Facada, Battery Raw Materials Broker, SCB Group

• How is molybdenum supply responding to the US and China trade relations?
• Will downturn in the steel market impact global molybdenum demand?
• Supply and pricing geographical outlook

• Historical cobalt market - critical and strategic importance
• Sustainability in the cobalt supply chain for key applications
• Ensuring cobalt is the metal of choice for the energy transition

• Procurement strategies for metals used in catalysts
• Changing requirements for metals in catalysts
• Catalyst recycling and reclamation: Recovering metal value from catalysts

• Technology and innovation in current market situation
• Recycling of sludges containing chrome, nickel and moly
• Assessing efficiency in the process

• What is the five to ten-year plan for the development of EVs: Manufacturing quantity of EVs and batteries
• Will global copper supply be an impediment on the growth of EVs and EV infrastructure
• Private and public investment: A realistic picture of what is needed to increase metals supply

• The requirements and expectation of responsible sourcing in the downstream market?
• Responsible minerals initiative: The standards and expectation
• Mining, trading and refining differences: What have we learnt and how does this impact the outlook?

• Strategies to manage costs in volatile markets
• How does cost control look from an end users perspective?
• What can other sectors in the metals industry do to help?

• Ferro-nickel projects in Indonesia: How is this contributing to the supply and demand landscape?
• What role is South Africa having in ferro-chrome’s current volatile market conditions?
• Unpredictability in investment and instability in the supply chain: Assessing the correlation between prices and new source

• Light weighting: Aluminium vs. high-strength steel
• Aluminium sustainability compared to steel sustainability
• Workability of steel vs. aluminium

• Both sides of the coin: Comparing countries with women in high led roles
• Benefits of increasing female workers and management
• How can women improve their position in the workplace?

Alice Minuto, Trading Unit Manager,North West District Young BPW Representative, Duferco international Trading and International Federation of Business and Professional Women

Meera Pau Mehta, Corporate Responsibility Manager, ArcelorMittal