World Bank's Banga sets goal of quintupling critical minerals financing in five years

BANGKOK, Oct 16 (Reuters) - World Bank President Ajay Banga on Friday said the development lender has set a goal of quintupling its critical minerals business in five years, and has identified 20 countries that it can partner with on critical minerals development projects.

Banga revealed the new goal in prepared remarks to a plenary session at the International Monetary Fund and World Bank annual meetings in Bangkok.

"In critical minerals, we plan to quintuple our business in five years," Banga said. "This week, we launched our first country compacts with MDB partners—to build local industries and keep more jobs and value at home."

The World Bank's new Metals and Minerals implementation plan is targeting $19 billion in critical minerals financing over the fiscal 2026-2030 period, compared with $3.6 billion in the fiscal 2021-2025 period.

Critical minerals development is an area where the United States, the World Bank's largest shareholder, has called for the bank to devote more financing resources.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this week that he wanted the bank to play a bigger role in enabling critical minerals mining and processing capacity through project de-risking and finance and investment in enabling infrastructure. He said this includes deep-sea mining projects.

Banga did not mention deep-sea mining, but the bank's metals plan calls for a "precautionary approach" to the nascent sector, adding that any engagement and investments must be consistent with applicable bank policies.

Banga reviewed the World Bank's overall increases in financing during the 2026 fiscal year that ended on June 30, including mobilizing $112 billion in private capital, a more than threefold increase from the 2022 fiscal year, before he assumed his role.

Alongside lending from the World Bank's own balance sheet, this brought the group's total financing to $230 billion for fiscal 2026, he said.

(Reporting by David Lawder; Editing by John Mair)