From Research to Action – Critical Minerals in the Mid-Transition

The forum pursues five interrelated objectives:

1. Analyse uncertainties and risks affecting global critical mineral markets, including technological change, geopolitical dynamics, and supply–demand imbalances.
2. Examine financing strategies and the evolving role of Public Development Banks (BPDs), DFIs, and Ministries of Finance in managing risk and supporting sustainable value chains with the private sector.
3. Assess French and European strategies on critical minerals in light of industrial policy, energy systems, demand policies, and the geopolitical environment.
4. Identify operational avenues for cooperation with producing countries, including fiscal policy coordination, industrial development, and responsible private investment.

A cross-cutting ambition of the forum is to contribute to the development of shared economic policy scenarios between European institutions and producing countries’ Ministries of Finance, as a foundation for more coherent strategies and partnerships.

Expected speakers and participants include high-level experts, chief economists and CEOs from mining, industrial and public and private finance sectors related to the field of critical minerals, senior researchers from European and Global South institutions as well as public civil servants from European countries, European Commission as well as other G7 countries.

• Thomas Melonio, Chief Economist and Executive Director for Innovation, Strategy and Research, AFD
• Christel Bourbon Seclet, Head of Energy and Infrastructure, Proparco
• Sophie Salomon, Director of the Human Capital and Social Development Department, Expertise France

• Rabah Arezki, Director of Research in Economics, CNRS, FERDI
• Myriam Ferran, Deputy General Director, Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA), European Commission

Moderator:

• Thomas Melonio, Chief Economist and Executive Director for Innovation, Strategy and Research, AFD

• Stéphane Bourg, Director, OFREMI
• Hélène Djoufelkit, Deputy-Executive Director, Sustainable Development, AFD
• Tae-Yoon Kim, Head of critical minerals division, IEA
• Louis Maréchal, Senior Advisor, Minerals and Extractives, OECD
• Godefroid Misenga Milabyo, Executive Secretary of COREF, Ministry of Finance, DRC
• Natascha Nunes Da Cunha, Senior Expert, DG INTPA, European Commission

Moderator: 

• Etienne Espagne, Senior Economist, AFD

• Ousmane Diawara, Partner, Infrastructure and Mining Advisory, EY
• Ignacio De Calonje, Chief Investment Officer, Energy, Minerals & Metals, World Bank Group - Knowledge Bank 
• Thomas Lagrée, Partner, INFRAVIA 
• Pauline Larat, Deputy Head, Energy Division, AFD 
• Massimiliano Picciani, Sector Manager for Innovation – Nuclear and Critical Metals, Bpifrance
• Natalia Lacorzana, Global Director for Natural Resources , European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD)

Moderator: 

• Guillaume Pluntz, Senior Investment Officer, Proparco

• Raphael Danino-Perraud, Associate Researcher, IRSEM and IFRI
• Ludovic Donati, French Lithium Project Director, ERAMET
• Benjamin Gallezot, Interministerial Delegate for the Procurement of Strategic Minerals and Metals, DIAMMS
• Elisabetta Sartorel, Policy officer, Critical Raw Materials, DG INTPA, European Commission
• Franck Fajardie, Director of Sustainable Development and External Affairs, Carester

Moderator: 

• Valentin Benoît, Energy Project Team Leader, AFD

• Luis Eduardo Osorio Calderón, Vice Minister for Alternative Energy, Bolivia
• Maddalena Neglia, Head of the Business, Human Rights and Environment Office at FIDH
• Nafi Quarshie, Africa Director, Natural Resource Governance Institute (NRGI)
• Isabelle Ramdoo, Director, Intergovernmental Forum on Mining (IGF)
• Grégoire Rota-Graziosi, Professor at the School of Economics, University Clermont Auvergne, and Chair of the FERDI Chair in Governance of Strategic Resources: Macroeconomics and Geopolitics
• Sébastien Treyer, Director, IDDRI

Moderator: 

• Cécile Valadier, Head of the Public Transparency, Management, and Accountability Division, Expertise France

Roundtable

• Myriam Ferran, Deputy General Director, DG INTPA, European Commission
• Benjamin Gallezot, French Interministerial Delegate for the Procurement of Strategic Minerals and Metals (DIAMMS)
• Emmanuel Baudran, Deputy Executive Director, Sustainable Development, AFD

Moderator:

• Carl Bernadac, Director of the Economic Analysis and Public Policy Diagnostics Department, AF

Research publications

• Critical Mining Asset Control and Geoeconomic Fragmentation: What Is Left for Developing Countries?, Research papers N°390, Editions AFD (2025)
• Africa’s mining potential: Current landscape, opportunities, and challenges, Editions AFD (2024)
• The minerals essential to the energy and digital transitions: An opportunity for Africa?, A Question of Development N°68, Editions AFD (2023)

Institutional publications

• AFD Group offer: Energy
• AFD Group and Energy Transition Minerals