Today's Edition
MAYS IBRAHIM (ABU DHABI)
Abu Dhabi's sovereign wealth fund ADQ, through its joint venture Orion Abu Dhabi, has already allocated $300 million towards strategic mining and critical minerals projects as part of its $1.2 billion investment commitment, said Hamad Al Hammadi, Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer of ADQ.
His remarks were made on Wednesday during a discussion at the fourth edition of Investopia 2025, which kicked off in Abu Dhabi under the slogan "Harnessing MegaForces."
Al Hammadi noted that the global race for scarce commodities like minerals is intensifying, and ADQ aims to position Abu Dhabi as a major player, leveraging its clean energy, strategic logistics and investment incentives.
He added that local entities like Emirates Global Aluminium and EMSTEEL stand to benefit from reliable feedstock.
Orion Abu Dhabi's Market Outlook
Phillip Clegg, Managing Partner at Orion Resource Partners Abu Dhabi, discussed the global landscape for critical minerals.
Metals like uranium, nickel and copper are particularly attractive investment opportunities due to increasing demand driven by the electrification, urbanisation and defence sectors, according to Clegg.
"The future is extremely metals-intensive," he said. "One of the core reasons for that is electrification. And what I always say is that copper is the lifeblood of electrification. It is used in pretty much everything."
He added that this is underpinned by major trends such as the rise of AI, data centres and the transition to electric vehicles.
An electric vehicle uses six times more copper than a vehicle with an internal combustion engine, said Clegg.
To meet the growing demand for copper, Clegg noted that the world would need the production capacity of a mine as large as Escondida in Chile - currently the largest copper mine in the world - producing 800,000 tonnes per year, every single year, for the next decade.
This level of production would be equivalent to opening 30 average-sized copper mines annually for the next 10 years, he explained.
