MINEXCHANGE 2027 SME Annual Conference & Expo

Programming is organized around Learn and Connect tracks. Learn covers legal, regulatory, innovation, and economic forces shaping mining and minerals, including mining law, permitting, litigation trends affecting critical mineral exploration and development, executive strategy, risk management, workforce development, geopolitical pressures, legislation, and energy security. Connect includes an exhibit hall spanning engineering and consulting, legal and financial services, environmental and ESG advising, recruitment, technology, equipment, and exploration and development. Its Business Development Forum offers one-on-one company meetings focused on opportunities and potential partnerships.

A professional development event for the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Space Force, and the aerospace and defense industry, focused on critical concerns and challenges of joint warfare. The symposium draws speakers from the Air Force, Space Force, combatant commands, industry, and the joint force, and includes dynamic exhibits. A 2027 agenda and named speakers were not listed on the event pages reviewed.

Programming is organized around Learn and Connect tracks. Learn covers legal, regulatory, innovation, and economic forces shaping mining and minerals, including mining law, permitting, litigation trends affecting critical mineral exploration and development, executive strategy, risk management, workforce development, geopolitical pressures, legislation, and energy security. Connect includes an exhibit hall spanning engineering and consulting, legal and financial services, environmental and ESG advising, recruitment, technology, equipment, and exploration and development. Its Business Development Forum offers one-on-one company meetings focused on opportunities and potential partnerships.

The program’s technical sessions cover environmental issues, geotechnical engineering, mineral processing, mining, Mexico-focused projects, geology, and new projects. Topics include Arizona’s WOTUS status; machine-learning-based representative sample selection; open-pit slope stabilization; alkaline-flush treatment of metals-impacted water; numerical mine modeling, geotechnical monitoring, and tailings-storage-facility stability; flotation technologies, ADR processes, and SAG mill sizing; mine-permitting timelines, pump failures, electrical maintenance, water treatment, and autonomous operations; and mineral resources, drilling confidence, tailings water balances, and mine-project development. Featured presentations address Resolution Copper’s next chapter and large-load electrical growth in Arizona. New-project updates cover the Santa Cruz Ivanhoe Mine, Florence Copper, Faraday Copper’s Redhawk Complex, and Hudbay CopperWorld. The program also includes a student poster session and a student pitch session. Pre-conference programming includes a course on proposed NI 43-101 disclosure changes and a Women in Mining workshop on boundary-setting skills.

Conference content centers on issues affecting the Midwest minerals market, including ESG, processing innovation, plant maintenance optimization, safety, technology, market trends, and operational advancements. Technical sessions address mining-sector challenges and opportunities; an exhibit hall features products, services, and integrated solutions for mining operations.

The conference focuses on mining-related technologies and methods. Abstract topic areas include reclamation, mine operations, and water treatment. Attendees are eligible for Professional Development Hours based on class time.

The technical program examines Great Basin geology and mineral deposits, including their strategic importance to U.S. mineral independence. It includes technical talks, keynote presentations, exhibits, professional and student posters, core shacks, field trips, and short courses. Technical sessions cover Mesozoic geology and ore deposits; exploration technology; Paleocene-to-late-Eocene geology and Carlin-type deposits; copper; epithermal deposits in Nevada and the Walker Lane; carbonate replacement deposits; ghost mineral districts and exploration blind spots; lithium; critical minerals; and the Western Cordillera. Field-trip subjects include hydrothermal gold systems, Walker Lane epithermal deposits, Yerington copper, Nevada lithium, Carlin-type deposits, the Comstock gold and silver district, and Lake Tahoe’s volcanic origins. Short courses address ore and alteration features in epithermal-to-porphyry systems and mineral resource estimation for public reporting, including geostatistics, data QA/QC, variogram analysis, interpolation, resource classification, and reporting under S-K 1300, NI 43-101, or JORC. All attendees are welcome, including nonmembers.

The conference addresses challenges across the mining life cycle through technical sessions, collaborative short courses, keynotes, and panel discussions, alongside a trade exposition. Technical sessions run concurrently, and the Core Shack features drill core and rock samples representing different deposit types and geological settings.

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.

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.

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.