Tour of Critical Minerals for the Energy Transition – Andy Calitz and Mary Hemmingsen

With Africa playing a growing role in the supply of critical minerals, this webinar examines the continent’s position in global value chains and what this means for industrialisation and the energy transition.

This session is led by Andy Calitz and Mary Hemmingsen, presenting the Critical Minerals for the Energy Transition Tour exploring key minerals—including copper, lithium, cobalt, graphite, rare earths, aluminium, and uranium—how global supply chains are evolving, and where investment and processing bottlenecks are emerging. From giant open-pit mines and remote brine fields to processing hubs, smelters, refineries, and battery megafactories, we will examine where these materials come from, how they are produced, and why geography, technology, and geopolitics matter. You will see how small volumes of specialty materials can be as strategically important as massive bulk commodities, and why processing capacity increasingly matters more than mining alone.

This tour focuses on the industrial reality of the transition — the physical systems that must scale for electrification to succeed.

Rare earth elements will be covered separately in the February tour.