Benchmark Exchange Methodology

Covering Forward Curves, the participant-contributed price expectation survey hosted on the Benchmark Exchange platform.

Introduction

Benchmark Exchange is a free-to-use platform on which active participants in the battery raw materials markets contribute their own forward-looking views. This methodology covers Forward Curves, the platform's price expectation survey.

Forward Curves is not a price assessment. It is stored and governed separately from Benchmark's IOSCO-aligned price assessments, which are produced under their own commodity-specific methodologies. Section 3 sets out that separation.

This methodology describes who may contribute, how submissions are collected, held and validated, when and to whom results are released, and the terms on which participants take part. Benchmark will consider whether a material new feature or material change requires further legal, compliance or methodological review, controls or supporting documentation.

What Forward Curves is

An aggregated, forward-looking expression of contributor expectation
Indicative market intelligence, produced from confidentially collected submissions
A gauge of dispersion and consensus across the contributor pool

What Forward Curves is not

Not a price assessment, benchmark or index, and not a settlement or reference price
Not a futures, forwards or derivatives market; no submission is a bid, offer or tradeable interest
Not investment, trading, hedging, legal or accounting advice
Not a forecast produced by Benchmark's Forecast division

1.1Forward Curves: structure, cadence and participation

Participants submit their own expectations of where selected battery raw materials spot prices will sit at five forward tenors, measured from the close of each survey window.

Forward Curves runs on a monthly cycle. The survey window opens and closes on dates published in advance on the platform.

Submissions are typically made in the currency and unit of measurement of the underlying Benchmark price assessment to which each tenor refers, so that contributor views and the prevailing spot assessment remain easily comparable.

Participation is voluntary and free of charge. A participant may submit values for some materials and leave others blank; submissions are required for the five tenors. Each tenor is aggregated independently.

Only one submission per participant per survey cycle is permitted. Where a participant revises a submission before the window closes, the latest version is used. Eligibility and the treatment of multiple contributors from one organisation are set out in section 1.2.

Forward tenors

Materials covered

LITHIUMCarbonate, hydroxide and spodumene grades
COBALTSelected refined and intermediate grades
RARE EARTHSSelected separated oxide grades

The grades surveyed at each tenor are published on the platform and may be amended without notice.

1.2Eligibility and the contributor pool

Who may contribute

Registration is open to verified individuals working for active participants in the battery raw materials markets, including producers, refiners, converters, traders and consumers.

Participation is limited to active market participants at launch. Benchmark will amend this methodology before contribution is opened to a broader group.

Participants contribute in their individual professional capacity and not as representatives of their organisation. Submissions represent their own independent professional view of the general market and do not purport to represent an official forecast, position or commercial intention of their organisation.

More than one individual from the same organisation may participate.

Benchmark monitors the composition of the contributor pool and may limit, consolidate or adjust the treatment of submissions where necessary to prevent any organisation or corporate group from having a disproportionate influence on an output.

Submission obligations

Each contributor must ensure:

that they are entitled to participate and that their participation does not breach any obligation or restriction applicable to them, including any obligation owed to their organisation;
that each submission represents their own independent professional view of future market prices;
that no submission has been coordinated with another participant;
that no submission contains or discloses specific confidential, inside or material non-public information about their organisation's intended bids, offers, trading positions, pricing policy, production, capacity, inventory, shipment plans or other future commercial conduct; and
that no submission is intended to manipulate an output or any related market.

More detailed obligations are set out in the Platform Terms of Use. These obligations apply to every submission and amendment. Acceptance of the Platform Terms is recorded through the relevant request access, registration or sign-in process and, under clause 5.8 of the Platform Terms, each subsequent submission or amendment is treated as confirmation that the applicable submission obligations have been satisfied.

1.3Confidentiality, access and market abuse

Confidentiality

Submissions are collected confidentially and linked to the participant's account for validation, data integrity, compliance and audit purposes.

Access to identifiable submissions is restricted to authorised Benchmark staff.

Only anonymised, aggregated outputs are made available to other participants or users.

Access & training

Access to identifiable submissions is limited to authorised staff who have completed the relevant confidentiality and market abuse training.

Submissions are held on a secure, access-controlled system, separately from price assessment data.

Individual submissions, validation decisions and rationales are internal and are not shared with participants.

Inside information & market abuse

A submission will be restricted and referred to Legal where there is a reasonable basis to suspect that it contains inside information, material non-public information or confidential information that cannot properly be used, or where it indicates manipulation, attempted manipulation or coordination.

Such information will not be included in a published output unless it has been reviewed and cleared for use.

A numerical price expectation is ordinarily an opinion. The greater risk arises where supporting or free-text information contains a precise, non-public and potentially price-sensitive fact.

2.1Validation and outlier review

Benchmark validates submissions before aggregation and may exclude individual values at individual tenors. Screening applies to the submission, not the contributor, and a value excluded at one tenor does not exclude that contributor's other tenors.

Statistical flag

Values falling outside a defined dispersion band around the median of eligible submissions at that tenor are flagged. A flag does not automatically result in exclusion.

Plausibility check

Values are checked for evident input error, such as a misplaced decimal, the wrong unit or currency, or a figure inconsistent with the contributor's own adjacent tenors.

Contributor check

Flagged values may be retained, queried or excluded without first contacting the contributor. Benchmark will not amend a numerical submission without the contributor's confirmation.

Record and review

Any discretionary exclusion must be documented and independently reviewed by another team member. A genuinely held market view is not excluded merely because it sits outside the consensus.

Suspected manipulation

Where manipulation, coordination or other improper conduct is suspected, the submission may be excluded and escalated under Benchmark's compliance procedures, and the participant may be removed under the platform terms of use. Benchmark does not disclose which submissions were excluded, as doing so could identify a contributor.

2.2Aggregation and publication thresholds

Published statistics

For each market, grade and tenor, Benchmark ordinarily publishes the arithmetic mean of eligible submissions.

Minimum threshold

A minimum of five eligible submissions will ordinarily be required for publication.

Discretion to suppress

Benchmark may require additional submissions or suppress particular statistics, where the size or composition of the contributor pool, the concentration of the relevant market or the distribution of responses could allow an individual submission to be identified or reasonably inferred.

Where an output is withheld

Where a tenor does not meet the threshold, or a statistic is suppressed, the platform records that the output is unavailable for that cycle and no partial figure is shown. Published outputs are recalculated only under the corrections process in section 4.

2.3Release timing and access

Results are not released automatically when a survey closes. Access levels and the release timetable are fixed in advance and applied consistently to every cycle.

Stage 1

While the survey is open

In Practice

Results are not available while a survey remains open.
No contributor can see the developing consensus, or their own position relative to it, before the window closes.

Stage 2

Validation and approval

In Practice

Following the close of the survey, submissions are validated and reviewed before the final aggregated output is approved for release.
Release is not automatic; the team requires sufficient time to review outliers and any other issues.

Stage 3

Release

In Practice

The detailed output is released simultaneously to all platform members.
The mean may be published more widely at a later date in accordance with the stated publication timetable.

There is no ad hoc or selective early disclosure to individual contributors. Where the detailed output is made available to subscribers, they receive it at the same time as contributors within that access group.

3Relationship with Benchmark price assessments

Separate systems and governance

Forward Curve submissions are stored and governed separately from price assessment data. There may be some overlap in contributors, staff and the Benchmark assessments used as reference points, but the two processes are administered under separate methodologies, systems and controls.

While a survey is open, the latest published Benchmark assessment for each grade is shown to participants as a reference point.

Forecasts are not market evidence

Submissions are forward-looking opinions. They are not transactions, bids or offers, and are not treated as price assessment input data of any kind.

No transfer, no influence

There is no automatic or routine transfer of Forward Curve data into a price assessment, and a Forward Curve output does not determine, adjust or corroborate any currently assessed price.

Escalation

Any suspected attempt to influence both processes, for example a submission intended to move a published assessment, is escalated under Benchmark's compliance procedures.

4Governance, records and corrections

Separation and conflicts

Benchmark staff may not contribute to a survey cycle they administer.

The platform is operated under separate methodologies, systems and controls from our price-assessment activities. Staff involved in both processes must maintain that separation and comply with the applicable confidentiality, conflicts and information-handling requirements.

All staff are bound by Benchmark's employee code of conduct, covering antitrust, conflicts of interest and confidentiality.

Records and audit

Submissions, validation decisions and the rationale for any discretionary exclusion are recorded and retained for audit.

Records are held on a secure, access-controlled system and are not shared with participants.

Discretionary decisions are reviewed to ensure they are applied consistently between cycles.

Review and corrections

This methodology is reviewed at least annually and may be amended with reasonable notice to participants.

Where a published output is found to be materially incorrect it is corrected, republished on the platform and notified to contributors.

Complaints may be sent to complaints@benchmarkminerals.com and are acknowledged within three working days.

5Terms of participation

The following terms apply to all Forward Curves participants and should be read alongside the platform terms of use and Benchmark's general terms of business.

5.1

Nature of the outputs

Forward Curve outputs are aggregated, indicative expressions of contributor opinion. They are not price assessments, benchmarks, indices, forecasts or recommendations.

5.2

No advice and no reliance

Nothing published under Forward Curves constitutes investment, trading, hedging, tax, legal or accounting advice. Participants and users act on the outputs entirely at their own risk and should take independent advice before making any decision.

5.3

No warranty

Outputs are provided on an ‘as is’ basis. Benchmark gives no warranty as to the accuracy, completeness or fitness for purpose of any submission or output. Liability is governed by the Platform Terms.

5.4

Good faith and prohibited conduct

Participants must submit their own honest, good faith views and comply with the standing submission obligations in section 1.2. Coordinated, duplicate, automated or deliberately distorted submissions are prohibited. Benchmark may quarantine or exclude a submission and suspend or remove a participant from the platform.

5.5

Benchmark's discretion

Benchmark may screen, exclude, consolidate or adjust the treatment of submissions, suppress statistics, suspend a cycle, and amend the grades, tenors, survey structure or this methodology.

5.6

No charge, no consideration

Participation is free of charge and unpaid. No prize, fee or other consideration is payable in respect of any submission, and no participant acquires any right or expectation of reward. Free access may be varied or withdrawn on notice.

5.7

Data protection

Personal data, including the link between a participant's account and their submissions, is processed in line with Benchmark's Privacy Notice. Participants may withdraw at any time by contacting prices@benchmarkminerals.com; withdrawal does not require the restatement of outputs already published.

Contact us

For more information, or to request access to Benchmark Exchange:

Prices & Data Division
prices@benchmarkminerals.com

For complaints or compliance related questions:

Risk and Compliance Officer
complaints@benchmarkminerals.com