Hatch joins world’s mining elite at BMO’s 26th annual Global Metals and Mining Conference

The BMO Global Metals & Mining Conference was held in Hollywood, Florida from February 26 to March 1, 2017. This invitation-only event brought together more than 1,000 industry leaders and institutional investors from around the world, representing nearly 500 businesses from 32 countries.

"Over the last five years, we have been among the few privileged companies to not only attend but participate in the BMO Global Metals and Mining Conference,” said John Bianchini, Chief Executive Officer, Hatch. “As a close partner to the industry for the past sixty years, these opportunities play a vital role in our continued ability to support the sector’s diverse and dynamic needs as they emerge and expand.”

During the three-day conference, Mr. Bianchini hosted the new age metals symposium—one of this year’s most popular sessions. Efficient energy storage has increased the need for metals and minerals like lithium, cobalt, copper, graphite, and aluminum. Together with executives from across the industry, the discussion focused on understanding these new demands, and resulting impact on today’s mining, metals processing, and manufacturing industries. 

Joe Lombard, global managing director of metals for Hatch, and panelist at the symposium explained, “Lithium, for example, is key to the future of our industry. Ten years ago, only 22% of all lithium production went to the development of batteries—by 2020, we expect this to rise to 67%. In parallel, we need to watch how energy storage technologies are advancing because this will be critical to the success of this new group of metals, its production, and its purpose.” 

With top leadership present from every major player in the industry, the conference is often used as a guideline for what to expect in the year ahead.