Appian talking to US, Australia on critical minerals after IFC deal

Appian Capital Advisory said it is in talks with the US and Australia about replicating the critical minerals investment partnership it recently agreed with a World Bank division.

The private equity firm and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) launched a $1 billion fund in October to invest in projects in Africa and Latin America.

Major economies are stepping up efforts to secure access to critical minerals, which are essential to advanced defence systems, communications equipment and next-generation industrial technologies, including electric vehicles.

“We think that the IFC formula is very attractive,” said Dominic Raab, head of global affairs at Appian, on Tuesday, adding: “We’ve had a lot of interest off the back of the announcement and we’re talking with the US and Australians”.

“We’ve had conversations around Ukraine and things as well about this,” added Raab, a former UK deputy prime minister and foreign minister who joined Appian, which has about $5 billion in assets under management, in February 2024.

Washington and Kyiv signed an agreement in late April that gives the US preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals deals. In October, US President Donald Trump and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese sealed a pact aimed at countering China’s dominance of critical minerals.

Raab said the IFC could rely on Appian’s in-house team of geologists and finance experts, while having more control over project delivery by virtue of owning equity.

Governments want assurances that the mineral offtake they are trying to secure and the mining asset itself will not be “snaffled up by China”, Raab said at the Resourcing Tomorrow conference in London. “Equity control gives you that.”

(By Tom Daly; Editing by Alexander Smith)