The London Metal Exchange (LME) has started to explore the potential for producing sustainable metal ‘premia’ for LME-approved brands, making a sustainability price differential public.

Such a move would ensure the value attached to sustainable metals will be transparent and could support the development of the market for sustainable metals.

Matthew Chamberlain, LME CEO, said: “Our conversations with stakeholders have shown that there is support for establishing a way to reflect an LME brand’s sustainability in its price. There is a growing sophistication in industry sustainability standards and accreditation programmes that cover broad criteria for different metals markets.”

The proposal follows on from the LME’s partnership with Metalshub, a digital platform, on an initiative launched in 2024 to develop a price discovery mechanism for low-carbon nickel. The Metalshub platform enables consumers to buy LME-grade low-carbon nickel and, since March last year, Metalshub has reported the monthly volumes transacted through the platform.

Now LME is now proposing to launch a broader series of sustainable metal premia for LME-branded aluminium, copper, nickel and zinc, incorporating a more comprehensive set of criteria than carbon footprint alone and underpinned by robust assessment processes.

Nick Stansbury, head of climate solutions, asset management, L&G said: "We welcome the LME's proposal as a much-needed move to enable the proper pricing of low-carbon, sustainable products. We believe transparent pricing of sustainable materials is critical to incentivising investment into transition technologies in the mining industry and we look forward to the outcome of this market engagement process."

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