LME Week returns to London this October, bringing the global metals community together for a week of seminars, forums and receptions. At its centre are the LME Metals Seminar on Monday 19 October at the QEII Centre and the LME Dinner on Tuesday 20 October.
Gen10 CEO Richard Williamson, Brett Anderhub, Head of Business Development, and Advisory Board member Bruce Tozer will all be there. Richard and Brett will be happy to meet any time throughout the week. Get in touch to arrange a time.
Below are our thoughts on some of the main things to look out for during the event, and the common discussion themes.
Metals Seminar highlights
The market view
The day opens with a welcome from HKEX CEO Bonnie Y Chan. Shaun Usmar, CEO of Vale Base Metals, gives the industry keynote, and Trafigura Chief Economist Saad Rahim follows with the global economic outlook.
Before lunch comes the Metals Debate and Outlook, which brings together analysts covering aluminium, copper, lead and zinc, nickel, steel and tin. With tariffs, shifting trade flows and volatility shaping so much of the year, it's a timely check on where each market is heading.
The metals transition
At 12.15, Frank Ha (Group CEO, Tianqi Lithium), Sam Whitehead (Invesco) and Richard Howard (Aurora Energy Research) discuss policy, investment and industrial strategy in an electrified world.
We all know that the energy transition is changing the shape of many of our markets, but will it also change the shape of your trading technology ?
The final panel, moderated by Bashar Mohamadieh, General Manager of LME Insight, asks whether digital infrastructure can unlock emerging metal markets. It brings together Metalshub, Traxys, Albemarle and McLaren Automotive, spanning a digital trading platform, a physical trader, a lithium producer and a manufacturer.
Emerging markets span newer metals where exchange liquidity is still thin and pricing and valuation lean heavily on contract terms, and new sourcing regions, where buyers need confidence in counterparties, documentation and origin before material can move at scale. In both, the challenge is similar to that in concentrates trading, where a flexible pricing engine has to handle premiums, penalties and shifting contract conditions.
Themes across the week
Beyond the Seminar, organisations across London will be co-hosting their own events throughout LME Week (see the full listing ). A few themes stand out:
Critical minerals under pressure
Argus, MMTA and Project Blue, and the EBRD are all running sessions on critical minerals and their supply chains. Between them, they cover export controls, changing price mechanisms, supply diversification and how offtake agreements can make projects bankable.
AI: separating the real from the hype
Unsurprisingly, AI features in several sessions this year. McKinsey will examine the growing influence of AI on commodity markets, while other sessions look at where AI genuinely fits across the metals trading lifecycle, from pricing and execution to operations, logistics and risk.
Traceability and responsible production
The International Copper Association's Industry Leaders Forum will discuss regulation, traceability and recycling, and the Nickel Institute will explore what it means to be a responsible nickel producer. As customers and regulators expect more, the data behind each shipment matters more, and sustainability reporting is fast becoming an operational question as much as a compliance one.
Geopolitics and volatility
Geopolitics runs through much of the week. S&P Global, Triland, Wood Mackenzie and SMM will each examine the forces reshaping metals markets, from tariffs and trade policy to resource nationalism and price volatility.
It’s not necessarily obvious at first glance but there is a common theme running across all these sessions. Whether the challenge is pricing a thinly traded metal, proving where a shipment came from or putting AI to work, the answer depends on the quality of the data underneath. In our view, the firms that get those foundations right will be best placed to act on whatever the market does next.
Meet Gen10 at LME Week
Richard and Brett will be in London for all of LME Week. Whether you want to talk about market volatility, critical minerals, traceability or where AI really adds value in metals trading, they'd be glad to meet. Get in touch to arrange a time.