Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Giga Africa Conference 2026 Takeaway
Updated: Oct 7
A key takeaway from the Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Giga Africa conference: the energy transition is also a story about the inputs required to turn mineral resources into usable materials.
It was great attending with our UK Director, Freda Gordon and speak with companies and organizations involved in projects across Africa’s critical minerals value chains.
Demand is growing not only from EVs, but also from battery energy storage systems, data centers, grid expansion and the broader electrification driven by AI. The impact will extend far beyond battery manufacturers. More copper, lithium, LFP, cobalt, and critical mineral production will require additional processing and therefore, greater volumes of sulphur and sulphuric acid.
Further, a conference theme was the growing interest of the US government (including the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. International Development Finance Corporation) in financing critical mineral projects designed to diversify supply chains. Chinese companies invested much earlier and at considerable scale across many of these markets, including Africa and Indonesia. If the US and its partners want to build competitive alternatives, significant capital will need to be deployed quickly to catch up.
For project developers and investors, understanding the availability, logistics and cost outlook for sulphur and sulphuric acid will be an increasingly important part of feasibility studies, input cost assumptions and procurement strategies.
That is where Acuity Commodities can help. We provide independent market intelligence and consulting across global and regional sulphur, sulphuric acid and other industrial chemical markets.
We were also pleased to hear interest in the Africa Fertiliser Conference that Acuity is co-hosting with AFRIQOM in Cape Town next year (February 1-3). The conference will connect the fertilizer, mining, sulphur and sulphuric acid industries at an important time for African project development:
Thank you to the Benchmark team and everyone who stopped by to speak with Freda and me!
