AI, Critical Minerals and the Race to Build Processing Capacity

The extraordinary growth of artificial intelligence is creating a new and largely unexpected source of demand for minerals. As AI data centres proliferate around the world, the challenge is no longer simply about having enough computing power. Behind every new facility lies a vast physical infrastructure of electricity generation, transmission, transformers, cooling systems and equipment, all of which depend on mineral resources.

A recent study highlighted by Rare Earth Exchanges estimates that copper could account for more than 80% of the total mineral mass associated with AI data-centre infrastructure, with grid transmission and distribution responsible for a significant proportion of that demand. Grain-oriented electrical steel, a specialist steel used in transformer cores, is another potential constraint as electricity networks expand. For materials such as gallium, germanium, graphite and rare earths, however, the bigger concern is not necessarily geological scarcity, but the availability of processing capacity and the concentration of supply chains.

This distinction is important. Finding a mineral deposit is only the beginning. Turning that resource into a consistent, specification-grade material requires processing technologies, expertise, infrastructure and investment. In many cases, these downstream capabilities are considerably more concentrated than the resources themselves.

As AI adds another major source of demand, competition for processing capacity could become increasingly intense. This raises fundamental questions for the minerals industry. Can existing resources be processed more efficiently? Can valuable minerals be recovered from lower-grade ores and complex deposits? Can waste streams and end-of-life products become meaningful sources of secondary supply? And can new technologies reduce the energy, water and environmental footprint of mineral processing?

These are precisely the kinds of questions that need to be addressed by the international mineral processing and extractive metallurgy community.

But there is a bigger question surrounding the rapid expansion of AI: where is this technology taking humanity, and are its benefits sufficient to justify its growing physical and environmental demands? Concerns about employment, human creativity, privacy, misinformation, energy consumption and the longer-term role of humans in an increasingly automated world are becoming increasingly prominent.

Whatever the answers, one thing is clear: the AI revolution is not purely digital. Its expansion depends on enormous quantities of metals, minerals, energy and infrastructure. If AI is to deliver genuine benefits to society, the systems supporting it will need to be developed as efficiently and responsibly as possible.

This is where MEI Conferences can play an important role. By bringing together researchers, technology developers, equipment manufacturers, consultants and industrial practitioners, MEI provides a forum where emerging processing challenges can be discussed alongside practical experience from operations around the world.

The critical-minerals challenge is not simply a mining challenge. It is a processing, technology and knowledge-sharing challenge. Breakthroughs in mineral separation, flotation, hydrometallurgy, process mineralogy and recycling could unlock resources that would otherwise remain uneconomic or underutilised.

There is also an important circular-economy dimension. If primary supply cannot expand quickly enough to meet growing demand, greater attention will turn towards recovering critical materials from industrial residues, electronic waste and other secondary resources. Developing economically viable processes for these materials will require the kind of cross-disciplinary collaboration that technical conferences can facilitate.

The current AI expansion is therefore more than another source of mineral demand. It is a powerful reminder that the future of technology depends, in part, on our ability to innovate in mineral processing and that how we meet this demand will form part of the wider debate about the kind of technological future we want.

For MEI Conferences, that presents a clear opportunity: to bring together the scientists, engineers and industry professionals developing the technologies that could turn growing mineral demand into more secure, sustainable supply.

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BME Metallurgy first time sponsors of Hydrometallurgy '27 and Flotation '27

BME Metallurgy is sponsoring MEI’s Flotation ’27 and Hydrometallurgy ’27 conferences for the first time, marking an important step in the company’s growing presence in the international mineral processing community.

The sponsorship is new, but BME Metallurgy and its predecessor business are certainly not new to MEI. Before the business was brought under the BME name, representatives of Protea Mining Chemicals were attending MEI’s flotation conferences in 2009, 2015 and 2023.

What has changed is the position of the business within the BME organisation. Protea Mining Chemicals was brought under the BME brand as part of Omnia’s strategy to create a more integrated mining offering, extending from blasting through to mineral processing. BME Metallurgy now presents itself as much more than a supplier of mining chemicals, offering expertise in flotation, leaching, solvent extraction, ion exchange, metal refining and process optimisation.

That makes the choice of MEI’s Flotation and Hydrometallurgy conferences particularly appropriate. Flotation '27 is directly aligned with BME Metallurgy’s reagent business, while hydrometallurgy is becoming increasingly important as the industry tackles more complex ores and seeks improved routes for recovering critical and battery metals.

There is also a strong sustainability theme. BME has been highlighting its work in green chemistry, chemical circularity, reagent recycling and reducing environmental impacts in mineral processing. Hydrometallurgy, in particular, provides opportunities to develop more selective and potentially more sustainable approaches to metal recovery.

The decision to sponsor both conferences therefore appears to reflect more than a conventional marketing exercise. BME Metallurgy is expanding internationally and seeking to establish itself as a technical partner to the mining industry, rather than simply a chemical supplier. MEI’s highly specialised conferences provide an opportunity to put that expertise directly in front of the metallurgists, researchers, mining companies and technology providers shaping the future of mineral processing.

In this respect, the significance of the sponsorship lies less in BME’s first appearance at an MEI conference, because its predecessor has been attending for many years,  and more in the decision to now put the BME Metallurgy name prominently behind two of the industry’s leading technical forums.

It suggests that BME sees Flotation '27 and Hydrometallurgy '27 not simply as markets for its products, but as important parts of the business it wants to build for the future.

Note that the conference has been rescheduled to September
rather than November as initially announced

#Hydrometallurgy27
#Flotation27
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September Mining Sundowner and SW England's strategic minerals hub

A fine autumn evening yesterday for the September Cornish Mining Sundowner at Falmouth's Chain Locker. Although a modest turnout, it was an interesting one, with two former CSM Associates secretaries, past and current presidents of the Camborne School of Mines Student Union, one "fresher" and Sam Wood, all the way from Buxton in Derbyshire to celebrate 50 years to the day that he began his student years at CSM. I was one of his lecturers and as far as we know only one of two still alive! 

It has been an exciting few months for critical minerals in South-West England, and particularly for the old mining districts of Cornwall and Devon. The most dramatic development came last month, when the UK National Wealth Fund announced an investment of up to £71 million in Tungsten West to help restart the Hemerdon tungsten and tin mine near Plymouth in Devon. The package includes £36 million of equity and up to £35 million of debt, while the Government will have the right to secure up to half of the mine’s annual tungsten production. With tungsten now firmly recognised as a strategic mineral, and China dominating global supply, the decision is a significant indication of how seriously the UK Government is now taking domestic mineral resources.

This is particularly interesting when viewed alongside developments further west in Cornwall. At South Crofty, near Camborne, Cornish Metals continues to advance its plans for a return to tin production, following further National Wealth Fund support announced in May. Lithium developments are also progressing, with Cornish Lithium's projects seeking to demonstrate that lithium can be extracted from the region's granites and geothermal waters using innovative, lower-impact processes. The Government's new Critical Minerals Strategy specifically highlights Cornwall's work on Direct Lithium Extraction and the potential to combine lithium recovery with geothermal energy.

The really significant change is therefore not simply that individual projects are progressing, but that Cornwall and Devon are increasingly being viewed as a strategic UK mineral province. Tin, tungsten and lithium all feature prominently in the Government's critical minerals thinking, while the region is also developing expertise in processing, recycling, geothermal energy and other parts of the supply chain. The South-West has always had the geology; what has been lacking in recent decades has been the investment and confidence to turn that geological potential into operating mines and supply chains. The events of 2026 suggest that this may finally be changing.

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Mantos Blancos NovaCell Pilot Study Receives Prestigious CEEC Medal

We are pleased to announce that a paper presented at MEI’s Flotation ’25 has received the highest recognition from the Coalition for Minerals Efficiency (CEEC), with the 2025 CEEC Technical Research Medal recognising an outstanding contribution to more efficient and sustainable minerals processing.

The award-winning paper, NovaCell Pilot Performance at Mantos Blancos: Advancing Toward Full-Scale Implementation, was authored by P. Amelunxen, B. Akerstrom and E. Jaques of Capstone Copper, Canada; A. Flores and L. Parraguez of Capstone Copper, Chile; M. Saavedra of Jord, Chile; and L. Cooper and S. Morgan of Jord, Australia. The paper was presented at Flotation ’25 by Alfonso Flores Carrillo of Capstone Copper, Chile.

The NovaCell is the latest flotation technology developed by Professor Graeme Jameson (seen left with Alfonso at Flotation '25). This innovative flotation device incorporates distinct recovery zones designed to improve the recovery of both coarse and fine particles. Australian company Jord holds the exclusive global commercialisation rights for the technology.

In late 2024, a NovaCell pilot plant was installed at Capstone Copper’s Mantos Blancos operation in Chile to process rougher tailings and validate encouraging laboratory results obtained in 2023. The pilot consistently exceeded expectations for both upgrade ratio and mass pull, providing strong evidence to support the advancement towards full-scale design and installation of a Jord NovaCell at the operation.

The CEEC Technical Research Medal is an important recognition of the collaborative work undertaken by the Capstone Copper and Jord teams and highlights the potential of NovaCell to contribute to more efficient and sustainable minerals processing. Congratulations to all the authors and everyone involved in the successful Mantos Blancos pilot programme.

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Biology’s growing role in the critical minerals revolution

For decades, advances in mineral processing have largely come through improvements in chemistry, equipment and process engineering. Now, a new frontier is emerging, one that borrows its inspiration from nature itself. If recent developments are any indication, biotechnology could become one of the most important innovations in the recovery of critical minerals.

The latest evidence comes from Battelle, whose researchers have announced a breakthrough in the selective separation of rare earth elements using engineered proteins. Their work demonstrates that specially designed calcium-binding proteins can distinguish between chemically similar rare earths, achieving impressive levels of purity and recovery in a single-stage, water-based process without the need for conventional chelating agents. It is an exciting development because separation, rather than extraction, remains one of the greatest technical and economic challenges in the rare earth supply chain.

The announcement also provides a timely backdrop to a keynote presentation at MEI’s Critical Minerals ’26, where Chun-Xia Zhao and colleagues from Adelaide University and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals will present a sustainable biotechnology platform for mineral recovery that shares the same underlying vision: using peptides and proteins as highly selective molecular tools for separating valuable minerals and metals.

The principle is remarkably elegant. Instead of relying on increasingly intensive chemical processes to force materials apart, these bioinspired molecules are engineered to recognise specific minerals and metal ions with exceptional affinity. Like a lock designed for a particular key, they selectively bind target materials, including rare earth elements and precious metals, while leaving others behind. By incorporating these peptides into recyclable protein systems, the Adelaide team has created a platform capable of repeated separation cycles without losing performance, while recombinant production offers a scalable and potentially cost-effective route to manufacturing the biomolecules themselves.

Perhaps most significant is the breadth of applications. The technology is not confined to primary mining operations; it has equal relevance to the rapidly expanding field of urban mining. End-of-life photovoltaic panels, permanent magnets and batteries represent increasingly valuable secondary resources, but their complex composition makes efficient recovery difficult. Highly selective biological separation offers the prospect of recovering critical materials from these products using water-based processes that avoid many of the harsh solvents associated with conventional techniques.

It would be premature to suggest that proteins are about to replace solvent extraction plants or flotation circuits. Laboratory success must still be translated into robust, high-throughput industrial processes capable of handling the complexity and variability of real ores and recycled feedstocks. Questions of stability, regeneration, process integration and economics will ultimately determine commercial success.

What is becoming increasingly clear, however, is that biology is moving from the margins of mineral processing research into the mainstream. Independent advances from organisations such as Battelle and Adelaide University suggest a broader shift in thinking: the future of critical minerals may depend not only on discovering new deposits, but on designing molecules capable of recognising the elements we need with extraordinary precision.

For an industry challenged to produce more critical minerals while reducing its environmental footprint, that represents a genuinely transformative opportunity and one of the most fascinating themes to watch at Critical Minerals ’26.

#CriticalMinerals26
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Memories of International Mineral Processing Congress 2006, Istanbul

In just over five weeks time the 32nd International Mineral Processing Congress will be held in Cape Town. The 23rd IMPC was held in Istanbul, Türkiye 20 years ago this month, from 3-8 September 2006. The location was particularly appropriate because Türkiye has a substantial and diverse mineral processing industry, including chromite, copper, lead-zinc, gold, borates, coal and iron. 

Bolstered by a huge Turkish contingent, the IMPC attracted over 900 delegates, then a record number (there were 751 at the last IMPC in USA). The conference included a strong body of research from Turkish universities and mining researchers, alongside international contributions and there were 453 presentations from 46 countries.

Three very memorable social events were held at the magnificent Dolmabahce and Beylerbeyi Palaces, the former being in the European sector of Istanbul, the latter across the Bosporus in Asia, and the farewell dinner was held at the end of the penultimate day of the conference, a magnificent affair rivalling the memorable ‘African Night’ at the previous Cape Town IMPC. In the splendid open air setting of Buyuk Klup, on the Asian side of the Bosporus, we were entertained, over an excellent 4-course meal, to live Turkish music, folk-dancing, and belly-dancing. There was a formal aspect to the evening as well, with final speeches from the organisers, and the lifetime achievement award to Prof. Heinrich Schubert. of the TU Bergakademie Freiberg, Germany.

Jon and I represented MEI, as a media partner, and some of our photos are shown below. There are many familiar faces, some sadly no longer with us, including the conference chairman, Prof. Güven Önal.

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