Geopolitics of cobalt: Achieving green energy transition in a polarised world

Dr Yanchen Wang is the managing director of SMM UK office, which was established in May 2021. Currently He focuses on the base metals market research and SMM overseas business development.

Dr Yanchen Wang is a well-known analyst in the global commodity industry. His areas of expertise include base metals market, coal and power industry, carbon emission market. In recent years, he has extended his research into the battery metals markets. He has visited more than 100 base metals assets around the world. Dr Yanchen Wang has more than 16 years commodity market research experience. He also often attends technical and market conferences and gives presentations as a key-note speaker.

Before joining SMM, he was the principal analyst at CRU and the head of Chinese aluminium market research. Dr Yanchen Wang had worked at CRU for 15 years. 

Yanchen has a PhD in Engineering from Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

Rob Searle joined Fastmarkets last year as an analyst working in the Battery Raw Materials Team. His focus has been on covering the cobalt market, developing the company’s long-term supply and demand forecast and authoring the weekly analysis within the Fastmarkets’ battery raw materials tracker. He is also responsible for development of the manganese sulphate long term forecast and analysis. Rob previously worked as a petrochemicals analyst at price reporting agency ICIS as a global coordinator for methanol, acetates and chlor-alkali markets. He graduated from Imperial College London with an MEng in Chemical Engineering.

Mr Kaderavek is the CEO of Cobalt Blue, an Australian based cobalt exploration and development business and 100% owner of the Broken Hill Cobalt Project (BHCP). BHCP is one of the largest new cobalt projects (ex-Africa) globally – aiming to produce ~17,000 tpa (over a 20 year operating life) of high purity cobalt sulphate for the global battery market.

Mr Kaderavek, an aerospace engineer, commenced his career as an RAAF Engineering Officer before transitioning to PricewaterhouseCoopers, preparing operational reviews and examining strategic options across mining, processing, railway and port facilities throughout Australia, North America and Europe. Operationally he has seven years of experience in large open cut mining operations and associated logistics. Over the last 15 years he has been involved in equities/investment research (including senior roles with Deutsche Bank and Five Oceans Asset Management) focussed on mining, minerals processing and energy storage technologies. Mr Kaderavek also held an international consulting role focussed upon renewable energy and battery storage technologies.

Ms. KaLeigh Long is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Westwin Elements, Inc. In this capacity, she manages the various operations of Westwin, focusing primarily on sales, supply chain, and government relations. KaLeigh is a serial entrepreneur, and previously, she has founded and operated several small businesses which included an advertising firm, a real estate development company, subscription box meat company, and a cattle company.

As Founder and CEO of Westwin Enterprises, KaLeigh managed mass communications and advertising campaigns for her clients, namely domestic and international political candidates. She has consulted for more than thirty-six US federal campaigns, two gubernatorial campaigns, as well as advising several candidates abroad, including presidential and down ballot candidates in Haiti, Venezuela, South Africa, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Rachel Zhou is Deputy Secretary-General of Responsible Cobalt Initiative.

Mitchell Smith is the Founder, CEO and Director of Global Energy Metals Corp. A publicly listed company providing shareholders investment exposure to the battery metals supply chain through a growing portfolio of jurisdictionally safe exploration critical mineral projects in close proximity to end-use application.

Mitchell is Director of the Battery Metals Association of Canada, a trade organization of entrepreneurs, explorers, developers and producers of battery metals and materials, who have joined together to support a rapidly changing energy landscape leading an effort to ensure Canada fully captures the abundant economic potential of its massive resources through the responsible and sustainable growth of Canada’s battery metals supply chain. – Mitchell is an important stakeholder and board member for several private and public natural resource companies having over 15 years of executive leadership, entrepreneurship and capital markets experience at all stages of the junior mining lifecycle, and is experienced with start-ups and mature companies in diverse industries both private and public.

Bryce Lee, Global lead of ESG & Sustainability of Huayou Cobalt (SSE:603799), who has more than 18 years of working experience in New Energy Lithium-ion Battery field doing key roles in overseas investment, critical mineral sourcing, responsible sourcing and ESG & Sustainability in the company. He has led the responsible cobalt supply chain due diligence program in Huayou Cobalt since 2016 and also firstly in cobalt Industry. Huayou Cobalt stays as the vice chair of board of Responsible Critical Mineral Initiative (RCI). Currently Huayou is working on a comprehensive ESG management throughout its investments from mining, refining and further processing, as well as supply chain management of other minerals like Ni, Li and Mn etc.

Prior to Glencore, Ash worked in various equity research and investment banking roles within the natural resources sector. He holds a Masters in Physics from Oxford University.

Antoinette N’Samba Kalambayi is Minister of Mines of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Jérôme Makimba Mungomba is President of the Administration Council of the Congolese Battery Council.

Molly McCoy was appointed in November 2021 as the Associate Deputy Undersecretary for International Labor Affairs at the Department of Labor in the Biden-Harris administration, following a 20- year career in the U.S. and global labor movements. Her focuses at the Department of Labor include promoting worker voice within the Department’s international technical assistance programs and spearheading the roll-out of M-POWER, the Multilateral Partnership for Organizing, Worker Empowerment, and Rights. Prior to joining the Department of Labor, Ms. McCoy served as the policy director for the Solidarity Center, a U.S.-based worker rights NGO focused on union organizing and worker empowerment globally. Ms. McCoy holds master’s degrees in international relations and international affairs from Columbia University and the Institut d’études politiques de Paris (Sciences Po) Paris.

Paul Mabolia Yenga is coordinator of Cellule Technique de Coordination et de Planification Miniere (CTCPM).

Mrs Marie-Chantal Kaninda joined Glencore DRC 3 years ago as Vice-President of Corporate Affairs . Since January 2023 , she is The President of Glencore DRC  and Chairman of the Board of Directors of Kamoto Copper Company-KCC(since July 2022) ,a joint venture between Gécamines ( 25%) and Glencore (75%) in the DRC.  She has over 25 years of professional experience in the mining sector in major international groups such as Ashanti Goldfieds, AngloGold Ashanti, Debeers Group and Rio Tinto.

Marie-Chantal holds a degree in economics from the University of Liège, in Belgium, and for two years was the first woman to helm the World Diamond Council. Married with two daughters, she has long advocated for greater access to training for girls and women, as well as for greater inclusion in the mining sector. She is a mentor to several young women entrepreneurs in the DRC, the founder and creator of a not-for-profit association (the MCKM Foundation), which addresses the issue of girls’ education in the DRC. She is a member of several boards of directors.

Assheton is an expert and NED on responsible sourcing, environmental markets, non-financial risk, and responsible investment in international and emerging markets. A track record of 25 years with a focus on the resources sector and international supply chains of luxury, auto and electronics OEM, wood and textiles. 

He is CEO of TDI Sustainability, and he chairs and serves on several boards and expert panels for standard-setting organizations, NGOs and private companies. Dr Carter is an expert on corporate voluntary standard-setting and certification schemes, value-chain development from producer to product, and a metals-industry expert.

Fabien Mayani is Director of the Extractive Industries Governance Program for The Carter Center in DRC since September 2020. He is a human rights lawyer and activist focusing on the DRC mining sector governance for the past 16 years.

Mayani has been advocating for transparency and accountability to ensure effective contribution of DRC vast mining resources to sustainable development of Congolese people. Over the past decade, Mayani conducted several human rights impact assessment (HRIA) case studies in the DRC copper-cobalt sector and contributed to advocacy campaigns that led to the disclosure of more than hundred mining contracts and other key data of DRC mining sector.

Mayani was Rapporteur of the CSR sub-commission of the Mining Code Review Committee and contributed to civil society’s advocacy efforts that resulted in the inclusion of new provisions in the 2018 revised mining code on transparency, ASM formalization, human rights protection, and community development.

Fabien Mayani holds a bachelor’s degree in International Law from Lubumbashi University with a focus on Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, and International Criminal Law.

Alexandra Cech, Director of Responsible Sourcing at the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), has over ten years’ experience working on responsible sourcing and economic development issues. In her role with the Responsible Minerals Initiative, an initiative of the RBA, Alex focuses on human rights issues in mineral supply chains, specifically convening and engaging with downstream companies, governments, and stakeholders to promote industry-wide solutions for the challenges related to artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) of cobalt. Prior to joining the Responsible Business Alliance, Alex managed the Human Rights and Supply Chain Responsibility Program at Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). Her experience to date includes responsible sourcing consulting, municipal economic competitiveness research, and economic development project management roles with UL’s Responsible Sourcing Group, the World Bank, and ACDI/VOCA respectively.

Alex holds a Master of Science degree from Georgetown University, an Honors Certificate in International Business Diplomacy from Georgetown University, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from the College of William and Mary.

Bruna Grossl is a Senior LCA practitioner at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. Her current focus is on performing Life Cycle Assessments for the battery industry and the creation of Benchmark global LCAs, alongside in-country specialists. Specialised in environmental modelling using life cycle assessments, and waste and resource efficiency.

Robyn Stoney is Manager Regulatory Affairs – Nickel Cobalt at Glencore

Nicci has extensive experience helping businesses and financial institutions to improve performance on social, corporate governance and climate change topics. She worked for 15 years at FMO, the Dutch development bank, in various roles guiding clients in efforts to strategically address environmental, social and climate change risks and opportunities in their businesses

As a consultant at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government, she worked with John Ruggie on the development of the 2011 UN Guiding Principles on Business and HumanRights. As Senior Advisor at the leading centre of expertise on the UNGPs Shift, she played an instrumental role in the development of the 2015 UN Guiding Principles Reporting Framework. She has been a corporate lawyer in New York at Jones Day, an international human rights lawyer working across Africa and Asia at pro bono Nobel Peace Prize nominee firm PILPG, and a development lawyer in Washington DC at the World Bank.