Agenda
Main conference day one
- 08:00 - 08:55
Breakfast and registration
- 08:55 - 09:00
Chairperson’s opening remarks
- 09:00 - 09:30
Government keynote: The US critical minerals strategy: What’s next?
- 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?
- 09:30 - 10:15
Government policy, industrial strategy and international partnerships: Can governments really build non-China supply chains?
- 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?
- 10:15 - 10:50
Beyond export controls: What will China do next, and is the West ready?
- 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?
- 10:50 - 11:30
Coffee break
- 11:30 - 12:00
Argus pricing, price discovery and market transparency: building a commercial non-China rare earth and critical mineral markets
- 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?
- 12:00 - 12:50
From mine to market: What will it really take to build commercially viable supply chains?
- 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?
- 12:50 - 13:50
Networking lunch break
- 13:50 - 14:30
OEMs and buyers: Who will buy non-China critical minerals? Creating demand signals for a resilient rare earth supply chain
- 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?
- 14:30 - 15:15
Who’s building the missing middle? Solving the midstream bottleneck
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?
- 16:00 - 16:40
Who will finance the next generation of critical mineral projects?
- 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?
- 16:40 - 17:00
Project vault explained: What it means for industry
- 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?
- 17:00 - 17:05
Chairperson's closing remarks
- 17:05 - 18:15
Evening drinks reception
Main conference day two
- 08:00 - 08:55
Breakfast and registration
- 08:55 - 09:00
Chairperson's opening remarks
- 09:00 - 09:40
The CEO debate: what will it really take to compete with China?
- Have we reached a tipping point, or are we still too dependent on China?
- What is the single biggest barrier to building commercially competitive non-China supply chains?
- Where should governments and industry focus investment over the next five years?
- Which assumptions about building non-China supply chains need to be challenged over the next five years?
- 09:40 - 10:00
Argus market outlook: is supply outpacing demand?
- Will demand outside China grow quickly enough to absorb the next wave of supply?
- Could new projects come online faster than demand develops, creating the next market imbalance? Which critical minerals are most at risk of oversupply and which remain structurally undersupplied?
- How does demand differ across applications, and which sectors will drive the next wave of consumption?
- Which materials have the strongest long-term fundamentals, and where are demand expectations becoming overly optimistic?
- 10:00 - 10:40
Minor metals: Which materials matter most for the next decade?
- Which critical minerals pose the greatest strategic risk beyond rare earths?
- How are export controls reshaping markets for gallium, germanium, tungsten, antimony and hafnium?
- Which downstream industries face the greatest supply vulnerabilities?
- Where are the biggest opportunities for new investment and non-China production?
- Will each material require a different supply chain strategy?
- 10:40 - 11:20
Networking coffee break
- 11:20 - 12:00
The heavy rare earth challenge: securing the next strategic supply chain
- Which heavy rare earth projects are most likely to reach commercial production between 2027–2029?
- How can the US and its allies build commercially viable heavy rare earth supply chains for dysprosium, terbium and other strategic materials outside China?
- How can access to heavy rare earth feedstocks be diversified while reducing reliance on Chinese processing?
- Which end-use industries will drive future demand, and what quality and volume requirements will they need to secure?
- What role will investment, processing innovation and government support play in making heavy rare earth production economically competitive?
- 12:00 - 12:35
Recycling, urban mining and secondary supply: a major source of rare earth supply?
- Can recycling become a commercially viable source of rare earths and critical minerals, or will primary mining dominate future supply?
- How much can secondary supply from end-of-life products, industrial waste streams, coal ash and other unconventional feedstocks reduce import dependence?
- Can urban mining provide a faster route to supply chain resilience than developing new mines?
- What technological and commercial barriers still prevent recycling from scaling to meet future demand?
- 12:35 - 13:05
Commercialising tomorrow’s technologies: which technologies will actually scale?
- Which processing, recycling and magnet technologies are genuinely ready for commercial deployment over the next 3–5 years?
- How do we move technologies from successful pilot projects to commercially viable industrial production?
- What is preventing industry from adopting proven technologies faster?
- Which innovations have the greatest potential to reduce costs and make non-China supply chains commercially competitive?
- 13:05 - 13:40
Who will manufacture the world’s non-China magnets?
- Can Western magnet manufacturers compete with China on cost, quality and scale?
- Which OEM sectors will underpin the first wave of non-China magnet manufacturing?
- What will it take to create a globally competitive non-China magnet supply chain?
- What investment and customer commitments are needed to build commercially viable magnet industry?
- 13:40 - 14:40
End of conference and leaving lunch