Critical-Mineral Conversion-Concentration Board Adviser

The mandate

Board papers show contracted tonnes by miner and country, yet cell-grade availability is created in a much narrower chain of concentrators, refiners, sulphate or precursor converters, qualified toll lines and outbound corridors. Several apparently independent sources share the same conversion campaign, reagent dependency, assay laboratory or export port; other alternatives need months of customer qualification before their output can enter a recipe. The standing question is how much specification-ready material survives the loss of each critical conversion node, after realistic yield, inventory condition, reserved capacity, qualification clocks and logistics constraints—not whether a supplier declaration can merely be traced.

Each month’s four-day allocation is anchored to one contested material family. The adviser first interrogates the conversion balance and failure assumptions with plant, sourcing and planning owners, then prepares a private chair note and leads the scheduled committee challenge or one of five processor, port or buffer-store observations. Six formal sessions are included. A newly reported node outage receives an initial dependency view within forty-eight hours, but the adviser does not join the operating recovery cell or direct procurement, shipments, qualification, release or external claims.

The eleven-month appointment closes after the annual materials plan and a blind exercise that removes one common converter while a second corridor is constrained. In month nine, directors must choose among inventory draw, recipe replan, accelerated qualification and production curtailment using management’s own evidence. There is no rolling renewal: a single additional month requires a fresh committee vote tied to a named capital or capacity decision and renewed conflict declarations. Closure leaves node dossiers, gross-to-usable conversion bridges, time-bounded alternatives, decision history and unresolved assumptions with accountable executives.

The adviser has no line authority, executive responsibility, procurement agency, audit opinion, production-planning role or board vote. Management buys and moves material; technical and quality teams approve process routes, specifications and recipe use; responsible-sourcing and legal teams own due diligence and claims; directors sanction investment. Challenge may extend to shared converters, recoverable yield, buffer usability, qualification lead time and 4PL evidence, but never to supplier selection, material allocation, lot release, origin certification or an environmental and social assurance conclusion.

Relationships with miners, refiners, converters, reagent suppliers, traders, logistics providers, warehouses, ports, battery companies, auditors, lenders or governments require disclosure. A current role involving a chain or conversion node under review triggers recusal from the entire material-family dossier. Other non-conflicting work may continue within the agreed cadence. Compensation is independent of tonnes secured, supplier approval, qualification speed, production continuity, diversification score, investment, contract award, assurance outcome or public claim.

Why the board wants this voice

Procurement sees contracts, responsible-sourcing teams see provenance and plant teams see today’s approved recipes; none of those views alone converts gross mineral positions into time-phased, specification-ready output after a refinery or toll line disappears. The committee wants a former physical operator who can expose common conversion dependencies and unusable buffers without becoming a commodity buyer, technical approver or assurance provider.

What you will own

• Map every priority material from mined or recycled feed through concentration, refining, chemical conversion, precursor manufacture, approved storage and plant receipt.
• Reconcile gross tonnes to specification-ready output using assay, recovery yield, co-product constraints, campaign loss, reserved capacity and quality-hold evidence.
• Expose alternatives that share toll lines, reagents, utilities, laboratories, ports, political permissions or qualification dependencies despite different supplier names.
• Test whether buffer stock remains identifiable, in condition, legally movable, recipe-compatible and reachable before the affected production window closes.
• Shape board thresholds for inventory draw, accelerated qualification, recipe replan, converter support, production curtailment and capital escalation.
• Run the blind node-loss exercise and preserve the assumptions, dissent and last responsible decision time behind each management response.
• Leave the committee material-family dossiers joining conversion capacity, usable yield, concentration, buffer cover and executable recovery paths.

Candidate qualifications

• Has governed critical-mineral, battery-material, non-ferrous refining or similarly transformation-heavy supply at executive level.
• Can evidence a production or inventory decision changed after nominal source diversity collapsed onto one converter, reagent, laboratory or corridor.
• Understands concentrates, assays, refining and conversion yield, toll campaigns, qualification, bonded buffers, lot genealogy and recipe-level usability.
• Has challenged plant, sourcing and responsible-supply executives without taking technical approval, quality, supplier or public-claim authority.
• Can distinguish contracted feed, gross inventory, recoverable intermediate, qualified output and material physically available inside a production clock.
• Is independent of miners, traders, refiners, converters, logistics providers, assurance firms, lenders and investors relevant to the review.

Non-negotiables

• Can attend six Zurich committee sessions and complete five processor, port or bonded-storage evidence visits.
• Will not select suppliers, allocate materials, approve process routes, release lots or certify origin and sustainability claims.
• Brings direct mineral conversion-capacity and physical-flow governance; generic ESG traceability or procurement advisory is insufficient.
• Will disclose miner, trader, processor, provider, platform, assurance, finance and government relationships before review.

1. 49 words maximum. When did apparently diverse mineral sources collapse onto one conversion node, and which production decision changed?
2. 49 words maximum. What miner, trader, refiner, converter, logistics or assurance interests require disclosure here?
3. 49 words maximum. How would you translate gross concentrate, process yield and qualification time into specification-ready weeks of cover?

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