Fastmarkets Critical Minerals and Materials Briefing 2026

The conference examines U.S. competition with China across advanced industries and the policy changes ITIF says are needed to protect U.S. technological leadership, economic strength, and national security. Sessions address China’s industrial and geopolitical position; emerging techno-industrial challenges in biopharmaceuticals, commercial aviation, and robotics; and obstacles to long-term investment in strategic industries. Other discussions consider political momentum for a comprehensive response, structural changes to federal science and innovation funding, strategic trade partnerships involving joint R&D and coordinated export and import controls, the War Department’s role in economic statecraft, and lessons from the post-1948 national security establishment.

The conference examines arms control without the frameworks that sustained it, the future of the nonproliferation regime, and deterrence and restraint in a multipolar environment. Topics include the end of the 2026 NPT Review Conference without consensus, the expiration of New START, Iran’s nuclear program, Russia’s nuclear coercion in Ukraine, and nuclear-weapon-state buildups. The conference is held on a not-for-attribution basis and focuses on rising experts and young professionals presenting research and receiving feedback from experts and stakeholders across the nuclear enterprise. The agenda is forthcoming.

Brings together lithium producers, project developers, processors, battery manufacturers, investors, technology providers and end users to assess the global lithium and battery materials market, test investment and supply assumptions, and examine shifting demand across EV and energy storage markets. Topics include which lithium projects may advance, financing the next wave of supply, battery manufacturers’ and energy-storage buyers’ sourcing needs, and how new end markets could reshape global demand.

The briefing examines active lithium projects in Texas and the Smackover Formation, including project progress, realistic paths and timelines to commercial production, technical milestones, investment and project economics, capital requirements, lithium pricing and demand, and routes to offtake. It also addresses policy and responsible development, permitting, local delivery, and how proposed production timelines and project economics compare with wider North American supply. The panel “Texas and the Smackover Formation: The Scale of the US Lithium Opportunity” explores the shift from resource potential to commercial delivery. Fastmarkets analysts will examine the lithium price outlook, domestic demand, and market conditions affecting new supply.

A mining-investor forum focused on the outlook for metals, capital, and mining companies. The program includes in-person 1x1 meetings among investors, mining companies, and sell-side participants. The 2027 agenda and keynote and panel lineup are being built, with sessions and speakers to be added as confirmed. Attendance is by invitation.

The forum brings together cleantech innovators, investors, corporates, and other ecosystem participants to address grid stability, water scarcity, waste-to-value, critical minerals, and geopolitical pressures on supply chains and energy security. The program includes a closed-door, peer-level executive roundtable and an opening plenary covering cleantech trends, capital flows, innovation, and the 2027 Global Cleantech 100. Agenda topics include nuclear fuel supply and nuclear supply chains; mineral processing, refining, recovery, and the post-mining supply chain; physical AI applications in grid construction, critical minerals, and dual-use; data-center power demand, grid capacity, water use, cooling, and wastewater resource recovery. Other sessions address heat resilience, energy efficiency for AI compute, geopolitical risk across energy and cleantech supply chains, and investor perspectives on cleantech funding. Innovation Showcases feature cleantech companies presenting technologies and business models.

An intensive workshop on projected electricity demand and expanding the supply of natural resources used to generate power. Topics include natural gas, geothermal development and repurposing oil and gas assets; hydrogen, uranium, lithium and critical minerals; and water, environmental, storage, site-selection and regulatory considerations. Program discussions cover grid shortfalls and raw materials for electricity generation, solutions for increasing electricity supply, geothermal, and technology including ORC, sensors and small nuclear reactors. Other sessions address AI prompts for grid and behind-the-meter planning; lithium direct lithium extraction (DLE) and hydrogen technologies; regulatory and legislative factors affecting geothermal, critical minerals, low-carbon energy, grids and data centers; and mining and oil-and-gas intersections, including near-surface imaging and copper for electricity transmission. The program also includes an AI prompt clinic focused on water, the environment, science and regulations.

The conference serves semiconductor-industry executives, engineering and fab managers, academics, startup founders, financial analysts, market researchers, consulting firms, and consortia. Its stated focus is materials innovation, management, and business success; the 2027 agenda is not yet published.

Government, industry and market perspectives address domestic fuel supply security; uranium markets; conversion and enrichment; fuel fabrication and supply-chain capacity; government policy and regulatory developments; advanced reactor fuel requirements; investment, contracting and trade; nuclear fuel transportation; and long-term fuel demand. The general session focuses on domestic and global market developments, emerging challenges, future fuel supply and legislative initiatives. The forum is closed to media.

A multidisciplinary materials research program covering electronics, optics and photonics; energy and sustainability; manufacturing; materials theory, computation and data science; nanomaterials; quantum materials, heterostructures and devices; soft materials and biomaterials; and structural and functional materials. Critical-minerals topics include advanced characterization, AI/ML and materials for enhanced critical minerals recovery and separation, and materials innovation for ultra-pure critical minerals from fundamental science to industrial scaling. Energy symposia address data-driven processing for scalable energy-storage materials manufacturing, earth-abundant active materials for Li-ion batteries, lithium-based battery characterization and computation, critical-material-free chemistries beyond Li-ion, solid-state battery interfaces and processing, solar-energy materials, space photovoltaics, and advanced nuclear fuel and cladding. Manufacturing topics include multiscale additive manufacturing, from nano-architected materials to macroscale structures; sustainable electronics; and processing and manufacturing pathways for emerging electrochemical energy storage. Other subjects include in situ and operando electron and X-ray microscopy, 4D-STEM and AI-enabled imaging; AI-ready materials research platforms; quantum sensing and superconducting materials; soft electronics, biohybrid materials and biosensing.

NAPE Summit combines an energy prospect and property expo with a business conference and expo hubs covering oil and gas, critical minerals, renewable energy, offshore activity, minerals and non-operating interests, data centers, and bitcoin mining. The Critical Minerals Hub addresses exploration, extraction, processing, and regulatory, market, and supply-chain factors; other hubs cover energy and digital infrastructure, data-center power demands, and offshore regulation, technology, and leasing. The Energy Business Conference has business and technical tracks. Its agenda covers U.S. and global energy-market outlooks; grid capacity and AI-driven electricity demand; AI adoption, scaling, and governance in energy; and how conflict, trade disputes, cyber threats, supply-chain disruptions, strategic minerals, and energy security affect markets and investment. Technical sessions address AI in subsurface workflows—including geospatial tools, OSDU and harmonized datasets, and seismic analysis—and emerging opportunities in mature basins, including direct lithium extraction from Arkansas’s Smackover Formation, geothermal co-production in the Bakken, helium and hydrogen resources, and horizontal development. The expo also features prospect presentations and a government affairs session.