World Mining Congress 2026 — Lima, Peru | June 24–26, 2026 Technical Program Introduction | Page 7 are presented. As automation and digitalization reshape the skills required of mining professionals, these presentations address the educational systems that will need to evolve alongside the technology. Track 9: Critical Minerals, Strategic Materials and Mineral Policy (16 presentations) The Critical Minerals track addresses the policy, governance, and supply chain dimensions of the minerals that are central to the energy transition. Three sessions examine institutional pathways for responsible mining, the practical challenges of delivering critical mineral supply, and the broader strategic and geopolitical landscape. Institutional Pathways for Responsible Mining: Mining knowledge governance for the green transition, integrated management models for mining cluster viability, governance risks from informal and illegal mining operations, and economic-environmental-cultural transformation frameworks are presented. The session reflects a global policy community grappling with the institutional conditions under which responsible mineral supply can be reliably achieved. Delivering Critical Minerals: Ion-exchange resins for lithium hydroxide purification, lithium mineral processing in Brazil, the art of implementation in the critical minerals era, and a 25-year review of copper in Peru are presented. These technically and historically grounded contributions bridge the gap between policy aspiration and production reality. Strategic Materials and Mineral Policy: Europe's global playbook for critical raw materials, the Nordic mining cluster in the EU-China-Global South triangle, geochemical exploration for critical raw materials in the Iberian Pyrite Belt, guarantee schemes for financing critical mining projects, and the methodological challenges of voluntary sustainability standards in midstream supply chains are presented. The geopolitical dimension of critical mineral supply — increasingly shaping national industrial policies and international trade negotiations — is given the serious analytical treatment it deserves. A Program Designed for the Challenges Ahead The World Mining Congress has, since its founding in 1958, served as the principal forum in which the global mining community examines itself — its achievements, its failures, and its obligations. The 2026 program in Lima is, by any measure, among the most ambitious and wide-ranging in the Congress's history: 266 presentations, nine tracks, contributors from more than 70 countries, and a host nation whose own mining story is inseparable from the global story of the energy transition. The Technical Program Committee has sought to ensure that this program is both technically rigorous and genuinely useful to practitioners. Sessions have been structured to create dialogue between disciplines that too rarely meet: between exploration geologists and AI researchers, between tailings engineers and biodiversity specialists, between indigenous community representatives and mine closure planners. The Andean Flagship Sessions ensure that the perspectives of the host continent are not merely welcomed but central to the program’s intellectual architecture. Jef Caers Stanford University Technical Program Chair World Mining Congress 2026.Lima, Peru
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0Mzk2