WCEF Official Side Event: Panel Discussion on ‘Critical Minerals at Scale: Securing Supply and Closing Loops’

As countries accelerate their transition to a low‑carbon and resource‑efficient economy, securing access to critical minerals has emerged as a strategic priority globally. Within this context, circular economy approaches including recycling, urban mining, and circular product design are increasingly being recognized as essential to reducing import dependencies, strengthening supply chain resilience, and supporting net‑zero ambitions.

Against this backdrop, Chase Advisors, in partnership with The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), convened an official side event at the World Circular Economy Forum (WCEF) 2026, one of the world’s leading platforms advancing circular economy solutions, hosted in India this year, to examine how circularity can be operationalized as a core pillar of India’s critical minerals strategy.

The session featured a thematic address by Smt. Leena Nandan, IAS (Retd.), Distinguished Fellow at TERI, and a chief guest address by Shri Anshoo Pandey, Director at the Ministry of Mines, who anchored the discussion in India’s evolving policy landscape. This was followed by opening remarks from Kaushal Mahan, Senior Vice President, Chase Advisors, who highlighted the growing strategic importance of critical minerals in global trade and economic partnerships. The panel discussion brought together leading experts from across policy, industry, and research, including Dr. Sandip Chatterjee (Senior Advisor, Sustainable Electronics Recycling International (SERI), USA; Adjunct Professor, IIT Mandi),Dr. Pankaj Satija (Executive Vice President, JSW), Dr. Abhinav Mathur (Advisor to the Board, Attero Recycling), Dr. Nidhi Srivastava (Head – Research and Strategy, Dravya, IIHS Centre for Materials and Sustainable Development), Priti Shukla (Portfolio Manager, Critical Raw Materials, Energiva Ventures), and Souvik Bhattacharjya (Director and Senior Fellow, TERI), who was also the moderator for the session.

The discussion reflected a broader shift from pilot-led experimentation to system-level, market-driven scale-up, anchored in coordinated policy and investment frameworks. To ensure the dialogue was grounded in ecosystem realities, a pre-event stakeholder survey was conducted, with insights and recommendations from the event being consolidated into a post-event summary.