IMARC 2024 in Sydney: critical minerals, AI and capex signals for project teams
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan

First reported on Australian Mining
30 Second Briefing
Geopolitical instability, critical minerals supply chain risks and rapid deployment of artificial intelligence will dominate the International Mining and Resources Conference and Expo (IMARC) in Sydney from 29–31 October 2024, which is expected to draw thousands of delegates and hundreds of exhibitors. Global majors, METS companies and governments will use IMARC to negotiate offtake agreements, discuss downstream processing in Australia and test AI tools for orebody modelling, autonomous haulage and plant optimisation. Outcomes will influence capital allocation for Australian copper, lithium and rare earths projects and shape long-term infrastructure and skills planning.
Technical Brief
- Geopolitical instability, the race to secure critical minerals supply chains, rising demand for key resources and the rapid deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) are reshaping the global mining industry.
Our Take
Australia-focused critical minerals coverage in our database increasingly links conference platforms like IMARC with government-backed geoscience work, such as Geoscience Australia’s new CMiO-MIN database, signalling a tighter feedback loop between policy, exploration targeting and investor messaging.
With Australia repeatedly flagged in our mining corpus as a key jurisdiction for critical minerals, IMARC’s focus on the country suggests operators will be under pressure to demonstrate both project pipelines and ESG credentials to secure capital in what is becoming a crowded, policy-driven space.
The involvement of Australian Mining across both this IMARC-focused piece and the CMiO-MIN database coverage indicates that technical data on critical minerals mineralogy is moving quickly from specialist circles into mainstream industry discourse, which can accelerate adoption of more selective exploration and processing strategies in Australia.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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