In this episode of Voices of Transformation, DPI Executive Director Florence Drummond speaks with Kwasi Ampofo, a mining engineer and Head of Mining and Metals at BloombergNEF.

For seven years, Kwasi has helped clients understand what the energy transition means for mining supply, demand, and investment decisions, bringing both mining expertise and data-driven analysis to the global commodities challenge.

Tune in to understand:

• The three external pressures reshaping mining: energy source transition, population growth requiring more material than ever, and information abundance creating sophisticated, values-driven consumers who can trace supply chains and demand accountability.
• Why the industry’s cobalt story matters. In 2019, forecasts called for 300,000 pounds of cobalt by 2030. Four years later, the forecast dropped to 150,000. The reason: high prices and reputational damage from artisanal mining drove innovation in battery chemistry. Lithium iron phosphate batteries eliminated cobalt entirely. The lesson: mining companies solve problems by scaling, not by innovating at the fundamental level.
• The fundamental shift required: mining companies must reimagine themselves as material companies focused on circular economy principles. The same mentality that made Uber rethink transportation should help mining companies rethink materials. Uber succeeded because it defined itself around people, not cars. Mining needs to see itself serving material loops, not just extraction.
• Leadership evolution follows constraint. When discovery was the limit, geologists led. When production at scale was needed, engineers. When capital was scarce, bankers. Today, the constraint is environmental responsibility and social license. The next generation of mining leaders will have empathy for communities and understanding of good governance as a dividend, not a cost.
• Why education and perception matter more than mining admits. Mining engineering graduates in Australia fell from over 100 per year to fewer than 10. The problem isn’t just job cyclicality. A generation sees mining as disconnected from their lives or feels morally uncomfortable with its legacy. Yet those young people don’t realize that every mobile phone, data center, and electric vehicle depends on minerals.
• The transformational economic impact mining can deliver. An artisanal miner in a West African community noted that large-scale mining had been present for 100 years with minimal local benefit. Only when artisanal operations began did concrete houses replace mud houses. Mining’s responsibility is to deliver value that reaches communities, not just corporations.

Throughout the conversation, Kwasi emphasizes that mining is everyone’s responsibility. If you consume metal products, you own an ore body sitting in drawers, garages, and landfills. The industry recovered only 3.5 percent of copper stock in use through recycling. Moving from a mining company to a material company model depends on consumers becoming suppliers in a closed loop system.