CMFC Takes Africa’s Minerals Financing Push to London as Global Demand Rises

Critical Minerals Financing Corporation (CMFC) is seeking to bridge the gap between Africa’s mineral wealth and global investment, taking investment opportunities across Nigeria and East Africa to Resourcing Tomorrow 2026 in London, where governments, mining executives and financiers will discuss ways to accelerate mineral development.The corporation, which is the gold sponsor of the December 1st to 3rd summit, plans to showcase projects and financing structures designed to make African mineral assets more accessible to international lenders and institutional investors, with the pitch coming as competition for critical minerals intensifies globally, raising the economic stakes for African countries seeking to move beyond raw mineral exports into investment, processing and industrial development. CMFC’s chairman, Lamon Rutten, said the continent’s challenge was not a shortage of mineral resources or global demand, but the absence of financial and institutional structures capable of translating mineral deposits into bankable investments.

CMFC, formerly Deap Capital Management & Trust Plc, is a publicly listed platform on the Nigerian Exchange under the ticker CMFC, existing to move critical minerals projects from discovery to bankability, and from bankability to production, with the company not a mining company or commodity trader but an originator, structurer, underwriter and financier of transactions across the critical minerals value chain. The corporation’s platform has four parts: investment banking and advisory, fund management through the EREF Venture Facility, an Exploration Risk Enhancement Facility that converts geological uncertainty into an insurable and financeable risk, and commodity and structured finance including metal-backed instruments, offtake-linked facilities, royalty and streaming structures.

CMFC will use the summit to present opportunities across Nigeria and the East African corridor, alongside its investment banking framework for mobilising international capital into mining projects, with the company’s president and co-chief executive, Dr Israel Ovirih, stating that “Africa is not high risk. The absence of process is,” and that where verification, staged capital and conditions precedent have been applied, transactions have behaved exactly as an institutional investor would expect them to. The company is coming to London to argue that case in front of the people who price African risk, and to show them the pipeline it applies to.

Nigeria’s $700bn Minerals Economy in FocusFor Nigeria, the financing push comes as policymakers seek to formalise the solid minerals industry, attract private investment and reduce dependence on hydrocarbons as a source of foreign exchange and government revenue, with CMFC aiming to improve access to capital to unlock Nigeria’s $700 billion minerals economy. The corporation will exhibit at Stand H07 alongside the Federal Ministry of Solid Minerals Development, providing investors access to Nigeria’s policy framework and financing opportunities being structured within the sector, with a separate session on mining investment opportunities in Nigeria examining the investment case for the country’s solid minerals industry and the role of private capital in formalising and industrialising the sector.

CMFC’s strategy involves investing in portfolio companies across the entire minerals value chain, from exploration funding, pre-feasibility studies, feasibility studies, mine development and expansion, mechanisation and fleet financing in the upstream segment, to refining and smelting businesses, beneficiation plants, processing infrastructure and concentrate intermediate products in the midstream, and bespoke financing solutions for downstream operators including commodity trading, long-term offtake partnerships, metal storage and logistics, and resource-backed financing instruments. The company’s focus minerals include gold, lithium, copper, rare earths, tin, zinc and the battery and defence metals that global supply chains now depend on.

CMFC also develops Critical Minerals Industrial Parks, integrated zones that pair mine development with downstream processing, power, logistics and shared services, so that value addition happens on the continent rather than offshore, with the corporation working with project owners, governments, development finance institutions, sovereign investors, international banks, traders and strategic industrial partners. The company will also participate in the fourth annual Government Roundtable on November 30th at Canada House in London, an invitation-only meeting organised in partnership with the High Commission of Canada in the United Kingdom, expected to bring together about 120 ministers, ambassadors, senior government officials, mining executives and investors from more than 60 countries to discuss mineral supply chains, investment mobilisation, project development and responsible mining.

The broader challenge for African mineral producers remains converting rising global demand into sustainable investment, domestic processing and economic value, rather than allowing the continent’s resource wealth to remain largely untapped, with the corporation’s participation at Resourcing Tomorrow 2026 representing an effort to demonstrate that African mining assets can attract international financing when supported by proper verification, structured investment processes and effective risk management.

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