Mining Indaba 2026 | Standards-Based Markets Roundtable

High-Level Roundtable: Enhancing High Standards Without Fragmenting Mineral Markets: A Global Dialogue Beyond the G7 

Date: 11 February 2026

Location: Cape Town (invitation-only)

As the demand for minerals surges to meet global energy transition goals, geopolitical competition, export controls, and concentrated value chains are straining the pace and scale of minerals production needed for global decarbonization. In 2025, G7 leaders adopted a Critical Minerals Action Plan and Roadmap to promote “standards-based markets” and ensure the security of the supply while raising the bar on responsible practices. While essential for transparency, sustainability, and resilience, this push could risk creating a two-tier global system that could marginalize resource-rich countries.  

Africa, endowed with many of the minerals needed for the transition, sits at the center of this shifting landscape. At a time when governments are expanding production, pursuing local processing, and aligning mining with national development strategies, a market access requirement could sideline producers if not designed inclusively. In its recent Position Paper, the Global Council for Responsible Transition Minerals outlines pathways to uphold high standards without fragmenting markets, emphasizing the need to build on existing tools, avoid weaponization, engage beyond G7 countries, foster responsible industrialization, and unlock investment.  

This roundtable in the margins of Mining Indaba 2026 will convene producing countries, industry leaders, G7 representatives, and experts to assess evolving governance initiatives, examine risks and opportunities in standards-based markets, explore cooperation opportunities beyond G7 and G20 economies, identify mechanisms to scale responsible investment, and inform the next 2026 French G7 presidency. 

Objectives of the roundtable: 

• Test and further develop the Global Council's recommendations on standards-based markets with producer countries, African stakeholders, and investors; 

• Identify the conditions for an inclusive design of standards-based markets (beyond the G7); 

• Gather concrete ideas for operationalizing these markets: existing tools, financing, support, role of DFIs; 

• Contribute to an enriched version of the Global Council's position and prepare a structured message for the French G7 presidency in 2026. 

For additional information, please reach out to clemence.contensou@parispeaceforum.org or maelle.lecureuil@parispeaceforum.org.