Building the next generation of critical minerals infrastructure.
Bbabsal develops the capabilities required to discover, process and supply the materials modern industry depends upon.
About Bbabsal
CompanyOne company. One integrated value chain.
01
The ground
Targets ranked from national scale geophysical data before capital is committed.
02
Processing
Concentrate converted into metal at the purities industry actually specifies.
03
Finished metal
Rod, wire, cable and oxygen free copper, to the tolerances manufacturers require.
04
Industry
The grid, transport, data centres and the defence industrial base.
The industries we enable
The industries defining the next century will compete for the same materials.
Copper and cobalt are not the product. What they become is. Every system below draws on the same constrained pool of refined metal, and none of them can be built without it.
Systems shown are end markets for refined copper. They are not Bbabsal facilities or customers.
Why it matters
ResearchThe next generation of industrial infrastructure will be built from the same finite pool of critical minerals.
Demand is accelerating
- Electrification and the grid
- AI infrastructure
- Advanced manufacturing and defence
Supply is constrained
- Permitting measured in decades
- Ore grades falling for a generation
- Refining capacity closed and not rebuilt
Bbabsal's response
- Explore
- Process
- Partner
Core commodities
Commodities
Cu
Copper
Copper carries electricity better than any affordable alternative, which makes it the physical basis of the grid, electric transport, data centres and modern defence systems.
- Essential to semiconductors, electrical wiring and advanced electronics
- Indispensable to aerospace and defence for conductivity and durability
- Ore grades have fallen for a generation, so more rock moves for the same metal
Co
Cobalt
Cobalt occurs with copper through the Central African Copperbelt and remains central to high energy density battery chemistry and to several defence and aerospace alloys.
- Used in semiconductors, chips and high performance alloys
- A key component of lithium ion batteries used in electric vehicles
- Concentrated in one region, with refining capacity concentrated in another
Group
Other critical minerals
The Central African Copperbelt and the wider region host a range of minerals that industry and defence supply chains have come to depend on, several of which occur alongside copper and cobalt.
- Assessed as part of the same exploration and targeting work rather than as separate programmes
- The company structure is built to hold further critical minerals as they become material
- Bbabsal is not named for a single metal, and is not defined by one
Where we work
OperationsProcessing in Michigan
A site in Michigan that has already carried industry, to produce rod, wire, cable and oxygen free copper for the electrical, transport and defence industries.
Pre construction. Nothing is built.
Zambia, upstream
Early exploration. No declared resource.
Route to market
Lobito Corridor. Third party infrastructure.
Built as one system
All capabilitiesBbabsal is built around three integrated capabilities.
Enabled by
Technology
Modern targeting applied to national scale geophysical data, so ground is ranked before capital is committed.
Capital
Intended for the parts of the chain where processing capacity, rather than resource, is the constraint.
Partnerships
The counterparties this work requires: governments, universities, technology providers and industry. None is yet contracted.
Research and insights
All researchProcessing
The United States mines more copper than it refines
Ten years of government data on American refinery output, import reliance and where the world's refining capacity actually sits.
Published
Method
What a national airborne survey is worth if nobody works it
A national geophysical dataset, what modern targeting can and cannot extract from it, and where the limits of the method sit.
In preparation
Market
Reading the 2026 refined copper deficit forecasts
Published forecasts disagree widely. The spread between forecasters carries more information than any single figure within it.
In preparation
The people who do the work
Careers
What we owe the ground we work on
ResponsibilityMining has taken more out of Africa than it has left behind.
Safety
- Designed into operations, not added to them
- Contractors held to our own standard
Environment
- Water and land assessed before a programme starts
- Rehabilitation costed into the plan
Community
- Local employment, with training rather than imported crews
- Taxes and royalties payable where the ore is mined
Governance
Claims policy, canonical facts, publishing standards and the limits placed on artificial intelligence.