World Bank aims to multiply critical minerals financing fivefold by 2030

During a plenary session of the IMF and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok, President Ajay Banga set a new ambition for the World Bank: to quintuple its critical minerals portfolio by the end of the 2026-2030 fiscal period. The plan targets $19 billion in financing, a sharp rise from the $3.6 billion allocated in the previous five-year cycle. To kick off the effort, the Bank launched its inaugural country compacts with other multilateral development banks, aiming to build domestic processing capacity and retain jobs locally.

The United States, the Bank’s biggest shareholder, has called for expanded support, even for nascent deep-sea mining projects, though the Bank’s metals plan stresses a precautionary approach consistent with its policies. Banga also noted that private-sector capital mobilized by the Bank more than tripled compared with 2022, pushing total financing for fiscal 2026 to $230 billion. The announcement signals a major scaling up of financial resources for the critical minerals supply chain.