Financing the Future: Impact and Opportunity in the Metals Industry

The CRU Breakfast returned to London’s Waldorf Hilton on Tuesday 14th of October 2025. CRU analysts and experts presented and discussed the critical issues, challenges, and opportunities in the metals industry. 

Taking place during LME Week, the event was a fantastic opportunity to network with other industry professionals and get the latest insights directly from our analysts.  This year, the focus was the macro economic and geopolitical factors affecting metals markets and the role of finance as the world looks to invest in new processes and technologies as part of the energy transition.  High profile guest speakers to helped unpack all this insight and give their perspectives on where they see opportunity and risk in the future.

View the content from the event

2025 Agenda

The CRU Breakfast explored the challenges and opportunities related to financing in the industry, particularly in the context of new supply and investment.

Session 1

7:30  Registration Open

8:40 – 8:50  Welcome message

8:50 – 9:30  Financing the Future: Impact and Opportunity in the Metals Industry.  This session will explore the following questions:

  • Why is the industry at an inflection point, and what makes financing more complex today?
  • What explains the disconnect between strong long-term demand signals and tepid near-term investment?
  • Which financing structures are most likely to scale critical minerals and midstream processing?
  • How are interest-rate differentials and China’s capital shaping global project pipelines and timelines?

9:30 – 9:50  Fireside Chat with  Luis Lucero, Argentina Minister of Mining

9:50 – 10:20  Networking break

Join the debate

Session 2

10:20 – 11:00  Commodity outlooks from base metals team

Market outlooks for key LME commodities

11:00 – 11:45  Industry panel discussion with Tim Hawk, Societe Generale and James Fryer, Ingio/ MIRA and audience Q&A 

11:45 – 12:00  Closing remarks, summary and key takeaways

12:00 – 13:00  Networking

13:00 –  Event closes

_

Industry Speakers

width=800

Session 1 Speakers

width=800

Session 2 Speakers

width=800

Related Content

Detailed agenda and speaker information will be added to this page in the coming weeks so stay tuned for further updates. In the meantime, why not check out some of the on-demand content from our 2024 event?