Metals & Mining: US Giga Conf. Takeaways: Key Themes on Demand, Bifurcation, & Gov Support

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Metals & Mining: US Giga Conf. Takeaways: Key Themes on Demand, Bifurcation, & Gov Support

Deutsche Bank

Research

North America Industry Date

Metals & Mining Metals & Mining 11 June 2026

US Giga Conf. Takeaways: Key Themes on

Corinne Blanchard Demand, Bifurcation, & Gov Support

Research Analyst

+1-904-645-2360

Please join us for a 45-minute Fireside Chat on Monday June 15 at 11am ET with

the Research Team at Benchmark Minerals post US Giga conference. Click here Mike McNulty

to register. Research Associate

+1-904-887-0349

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David Begleiter

Earlier this week, we attended the Benchmark Giga US 2026 conference on Research Analyst

Lithium, rare earths, and critical minerals, meeting with key corporates and +1-212-250-5473

industry experts. In this note, we highlight the key takeaways from the

conference.

Key takeaway: Heavy focus on strong and diversified demand for critical minerals,

driven by BESS, data centers, and a growing market bifurcation creating a

potential price premium for Western production. The primary bottleneck for

localizing the US supply chain remains the lack of midstream cathode

manufacturing, with costs in the US estimated at 7-10x that in China. Government

support was a key focus with an overall theme of more mature projects being best

suited to receive funding.

Key themes and learnings

• BESS demand remains front and center: High focus on BESS demand as

a vector of overall Lithium demand. While EV demand remains the largest

component of battery demand globally, its growth is becoming more

nuanced, driven by policy and regional differences. BESS demand has

seen historical growth of over 50% YoY over the past few years and is

expected to reach 500GWh in 2026 (+43% YoY).