Critical-minerals security has become a significant industrial-policy issue. This session widens the lens from US EXIM’s Project Vault to show how agencies globally are deploying frameworks such as stockpiling, upstream mining risk support, inventory financing and recycling to reduce supply-chain dependence and support technology and transition-related demand. This panel will delve into:

• ECAs taking mining and refining risk - reopening upstream assets and building domestic refining to break the processing monopoly
• How Vault offtake de-risks LatAm lithium and copper project finance, and where traders (Hartree, Traxys, Mercuria) intermediate
• Where ECAs, DFIs and private capital sit in the capital stack, and what “credible long-term offtake” means for bankability

After years of underinvestment, Mexico approved 20 private-sector renewable projects in December 2025 worth a combined USD 4.75B via a streamlined process. The call for proposals prioritized solar and wind developments in six regions where grid reinforcement is needed to support economic growth, as the government invites private generation to complement national electricity system needs. This panel will contemplate:

• The role that renewables will play to meet Mexico’s substantial power needs

• The pipeline of projects underway: who is financing them?

• Mixed investments with Mexican power utility CFE