LME-Based Hedging & Price Risk Governance
Hedging & Price Risk Advisory for Metals, Mining and Merchants
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Mettallo provides independent, decision-grade hedging and price risk advisory for metals producers, asset owners, and decision-makers.
We help clients design and govern hedging frameworks that are proportionate, resilient, and defensible across market cycles.
We do not trade, execute, or distribute products. We advise.
Our work sits at the intersection of market structure, operational reality, and governance discipline, where poor decisions are most costly and good decisions must survive volatility, scrutiny, and hindsight.
Hedging Strategy Design & Oversight
We design and oversee hedging frameworks for organizations where commodity price risk is material and asymmetric. Our focus is not on instruments in isolation, but on building governable systems: clear objectives, defined constraints, disciplined coverage logic, and decision rights that hold under stress.
Hedging programs are designed to protect liquidity, support financing, and preserve strategic flexibility, not to express price views.
LME Market Structure Advisory
For base metals, hedging outcomes are driven as much by market structure as by price direction. We provide LME-native advisory grounded in prompt dates, spreads, roll economics, liquidity constraints, and stress behaviour.
Our work ensures that hedging strategies reflect how the London Metal Exchange actually functions, particularly during periods of volatility or dislocation.
Independent Bank & Counterparty Review
Banks and trading houses sell hedging products. We provide independent review.
We deconstruct proposed structures, expose embedded optionality and value transfer, and test outcomes under adverse scenarios so decision-makers understand exactly what they are approving, and what risks remain.
Board, CFO & Governance Advisory
Hedging programs fail most often due to governance breakdown, not market error. We work directly with boards, CFOs, and risk committees to embed price risk decisions within clear authority, policy, and accountability frameworks.
Our advisory protects decision-makers by focusing on decision quality rather than hindsight P&L.
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Base Metals (LME Core)
Advisory covering copper, aluminium, zinc, nickel, lead, and tin — grounded in LME prompt-date mechanics, spreads, liquidity, and physical market interaction.
Precious Metals
Conservative, option-focused hedging frameworks for gold and silver producers, designed to protect downside outcomes while preserving upside participation and governance stability.
Platinum Group Metals (PGMs)
Highly disciplined advisory for structurally thin and discontinuous PGM markets, emphasizing liquidity realism, short-tenor protection, and explicit acceptance of residual risk where hedging is impractical.
How We Engage
We work through structured advisory formats, scaled to client needs:
Strategic hedging framework design
Ongoing oversight and periodic review
Independent proposal and transaction review
Board, CFO, and risk committee advisory
Engagements may be project-based or retained.
Who We Work With
Mid-cap and emerging metals producers
Established producers with active hedging programs
Boards, CFOs, treasurers, and risk committees
Metal traders, metal merchants, and physical buying desks
Industrial consumers and OEMs with meaningful metals exposure
Lenders, private equity sponsors, commodity-focused funds, and asset owners
Our clients engage us where price risk materially affects outcomes, financing stability, procurement economics, or governance credibility.
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Independent by Construction
We do not execute trades, accept counterparty compensation, or tie fees to hedge volume.
Our independence ensures advice is shaped solely by client objectives and constraints.
Market-Structure Fluent
We are metals-native, with deep fluency in LME mechanics, precious metals dynamics, and thin PGM markets — not generic commodity frameworks.
Governance-First
We treat hedging as a governance discipline. Success is defined by resilience and decision quality, not short-term price outcomes.
Judgment Over Automation
Tools and models support decisions, but judgment determines whether hedging reduces risk or creates it.
We advise with restraint where restraint is the safer choice.
When to Engage Mettallo
Before implementing or resetting a hedging program
To define a clear risk mandate, coverage philosophy, and measurable success criteria
To build policy, limits, delegations, and escalation paths that hold up under scrutiny
To align hedging with operating reality (production variability, procurement timing, inventory, sales terms)
To design instruments, tenors, and roll methodology that fit liquidity and market depth
To correct structural weaknesses after losses, turnover, or “program drift”
Ahead of project finance, refinancing, or capital events
To strengthen lender and investor confidence with a credible risk framework
To link hedging strategy directly to covenants, DSCR sensitivity, and downside cases
To pressure-test cashflow under adverse price paths, spreads, and basis movements
To validate hedge assumptions embedded in models, IC decks, and lender materials
To ensure governance, reporting, and controls meet financing and diligence expectations
When reviewing bank, trader, or merchant proposals
To translate term sheets into true economics (roll costs, spreads, optionality, fees, margin impacts)
To compare structures apples-to-apples across counterparties and routes to market
To identify embedded risks: liquidity cliffs, correlation/basis mismatch, trigger terms, termination risk
To assess whether the structure fits your policy, accounting constraints, and operational capacity
To negotiate from a position of clarity and avoid “solution selling” that creates hidden exposure
During periods of heightened volatility or governance pressure
To rapidly refresh exposure and revalidate risk posture as conditions change
To set decision cadence, guardrails, and “pause/adjust” rules to prevent reactive hedging
To provide board- and committee-ready materials that clarify tradeoffs and rationale
To manage stress points: margin calls, roll pressure, widening spreads, and liquidity deterioration
To maintain program credibility when outcomes are noisy and scrutiny is highest
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We advise organizations where exposure to metals prices is material, asymmetric, and capable of impairing commercial outcomes or governance credibility if poorly managed. Our clients typically operate in environments where price risk is structural — not incidental — and where hedging decisions must withstand volatility, scrutiny, and hindsight.
Metals Producers
Mid-cap and Emerging Producers
We work with producing and near-producing companies where commodity price volatility directly affects liquidity, covenant headroom, and financing outcomes. These clients often face pressure to hedge without having dedicated internal risk infrastructure, making proportionality and governance critical.Established Producers
For larger, established producers with active hedging programs, we provide independent oversight, periodic review, and governance reinforcement. Our role is to prevent drift, unnecessary complexity, and hindsight-driven decision-making as programs evolve over time.Metals Merchants, Traders, and Physical Market Participants
We advise metal merchants, traders, processors, and physical market participants exposed to base metal price risk through inventory, forward sales, offtake commitments, or customer pricing structures.
These organizations typically hedge the other side of the market relative to producers, but face many of the same risks:
Mismatch between physical exposure and financial hedges
Liquidity and roll risk on the LME
Margining and working-capital stress under volatility
Governance challenges around hedge limits and authority
Our advisory helps ensure that hedging frameworks for merchants and physical participants are aligned with inventory dynamics, turnover, liquidity constraints, and commercial realities — rather than being driven solely by trading convention or short-term P&L.
Industrial Consumers and Metal-Exposed Corporates
We also advise manufacturers, processors, and industrial companies where base metal prices materially affect input costs, margins, or customer pricing.
These clients often face different governance challenges than producers:
Balancing price protection with competitive pricing
Aligning hedging with procurement cycles and contracts
Avoiding over-hedging in uncertain demand environments
Our role is to design hedging approaches that stabilise margins and budgeting outcomes without introducing undue complexity or operational rigidity.
Boards, CFOs, and Risk Committees
We work directly with boards, CFOs, and risk committees responsible for approving and overseeing hedging decisions.
These engagements focus on:
Translating market mechanics into decision-grade governance
Defining success in terms of decision quality rather than hindsight P&L
Protecting decision-makers from volatility-driven pressure and narrative risk
Lenders, Private Equity Sponsors, and Asset Owners
We support lenders, private equity sponsors, and asset owners with exposure to metals-linked cash flows.
Typical use cases include:
Independent assessment of hedging frameworks in financing processes
Portfolio-level risk review and consistency checks
Support for investment and credit committees during volatile periods
Our advisory helps capital providers understand whether price risk is being managed in a way that genuinely supports downside protection and long-term value preservation.
In Short
Our clients engage us where:
Metal price exposure is unavoidable
Hedging decisions carry asymmetric downside risk
Governance, liquidity, or financing outcomes are at stake
Whether the exposure arises from production, inventory, procurement, or physical market activity, Mettallo provides independent, market-structure-aware advisory designed to make hedging decisions proportionate, resilient, and defensible.
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ManageMeet is a specialized business development and meeting-generation service designed to connect solution providers with senior decision-makers in the global mining and metals industry.
We help companies cut through noise, bypass gatekeepers, and secure meaningful conversations with the people who matter most.
Our focus is simple: deliver qualified, high-value meetings that lead to real commercial outcomes.
What We Do
ManageMeet acts as an extension of your sales organization. We identify, engage, and secure meetings with executives and senior decision-makers at mining companies worldwide, allowing your team to focus on closing business rather than chasing leads.
We combine deep industry knowledge, proven sales methodology, and disciplined execution to build reliable sales pipelines in complex, relationship-driven markets.
How It Works
1. Targeted Prospecting
We research and identify the right companies and decision-makers aligned to your offering, ensuring outreach is focused, relevant, and strategic.2. Clear Value Messaging
We work with you to articulate a concise, compelling value proposition that resonates with senior mining professionals and addresses real operational and commercial needs.3. Direct Engagement
Through structured outreach and follow-up, we initiate conversations and secure meetings on your behalf — delivering them directly to your calendar or inbox.4. Scalable Pipeline Growth
Our process is repeatable and scalable, enabling consistent meeting flow and predictable pipeline expansion without adding internal headcount.Who We Work With
ManageMeet partners with companies that sell products, services, or technologies into the mining and metals sector, including:
Equipment and technology providers
Engineering and operational services firms
Digital, automation, and data solutions companies
Specialized suppliers seeking global market access
If your growth depends on reaching senior mining executives, ManageMeet is built for you.
Why ManageMeet
Industry Focused — Deep specialization in mining and metals
Experience-Driven — Decades of real sales and market expertise
Outcome Oriented — Meetings, conversations, and opportunities — not vanity metrics
Low Friction — We handle the heavy lifting so your team doesn’t have to
We don’t sell software. We don’t sell lists.
We deliver access, conversations, and momentum.Our Philosophy
In industries where trust, credibility, and timing matter, growth doesn’t come from mass outreach — it comes from the right conversation with the right person at the right moment.
ManageMeet exists to make those conversations happen.
mettallo
David Maynard
David Maynard is the founder of Mettallo, an independent hedging and price risk advisory practice serving metals producers, merchants, industrial consumers, and capital providers.
Mettallo was established to address a persistent gap in metals markets: while hedging instruments are abundant, truly independent, decision-grade advice grounded in market structure, operational reality, and governance discipline is rare. David’s work focuses on designing and governing hedging frameworks that are proportionate, resilient, and defensible across market cycles — especially where decisions are difficult to reverse and accountability cannot be abstracted.
With more than 30 years of global experience across mining, metals markets, derivatives, institutional finance, exchanges, and capital-intensive operations, David has worked across the full physical–financial continuum of metals — from underground mining and processing, to LME ring trading, to structuring and overseeing complex hedging programs within fully regulated institutions.
This breadth underpins Mettallo’s philosophy: hedging failures rarely occur because instruments are unavailable. They occur because market mechanics, operational constraints, and governance are misaligned.
From the Mine to the Market
David’s foundation is in mining engineering. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Honours) from Imperial College London and Associate status with the Royal School of Mines. His early career included hands-on underground experience in gold and tin mining in South Africa and the United Kingdom, across deep-level, narrow-vein, and polymetallic operations.
That grounding shapes his advisory approach. Hedging, in David’s view, must start with how metal is actually produced, processed, and delivered — not with abstract price models detached from operational truth.
LME and Institutional Metals Markets
David later built a long career at the core of institutional metals markets. He began as an LME ring dealer in London, executing derivatives in open outcry and advising mining companies and institutional investors on hedging strategy.
He went on to hold senior roles at NYMEX/COMEX, Lehman Brothers, R.J. O’Brien, and Société Générale CIB, where he served as Director of Metals Derivatives. Working under full regulatory, audit, and risk-governance frameworks, he structured and reviewed hedging programs across base metals, precious metals, and PGMs.
He also acted as lead institutional coverage for major global funds including BlueCrest Capital Management and Brevan Howard, supporting complex liquidity, risk-transfer, and hedging decisions at scale.
A consistent lesson emerged from this work: in metals markets, outcomes are often driven by structure, not direction.
Capital, Judgment, and Irreversible Decisions
Beyond financial markets, David has operated in capital-intensive, time-constrained environments where decisions carry permanent consequences. He has led financing efforts under pressure, negotiated with lenders and stakeholders, and worked in conditions where delay or error could not be recovered.
Across his career, David has repeatedly served as a supervisory decision layer over automated, financial, and operational systems — originating and overseeing executive and institutional decisions across markets, technology, and industrial domains.
He is the author of Thinking in an Artificial Age and the inventor of Finite-Mode Reasoning Architecture, a deterministic decision framework designed for high-stakes environments where uncertainty is real, outcomes are asymmetric, and accountability must remain explicit. The principles behind this framework translate directly into Mettallo’s approach to hedging governance: bounding decisions, defining authority, and making rationale explainable under scrutiny.
Licenses and Professional Standing
During his institutional career, David held the regulatory licenses and approvals required to operate within fully regulated derivatives and commodities markets, including:
FCA CF30, Approved Person (Not current)
FINRA Series 7 (Not current)
FINRA Series 63 (Not current)
FINRA Series 65 (Not current)
FINRA Series 3 (Not current)
FINRA Series 30 (Not current)
FINRA Series 31 (Not current)
While no longer maintained, these reflect extensive experience operating under formal regulatory supervision, audit, and compliance regimes — and inform Mettallo’s emphasis on governance, documentation, and decision accountability.
Independence, Governance, and Restraint
Mettallo does not trade, execute, or distribute products. We do not accept compensation tied to hedge volume, frequency, or market outcomes. Our sole purpose is to provide independent, decision-grade advice that can withstand scrutiny from boards, lenders, investors, and regulators long after markets move.
Mettallo’s work is defined by three principles:
Hedging is a governance discipline before it is a financial one
Decision quality and resilience matter more than hindsight P&L
Independence from execution incentives is essential to judgment
Why Mettallo
Mettallo is the distillation of experience across mining, markets, merchants, capital providers, and governance systems. We exist to help organizations exposed to metals prices make hedging decisions that are:
Proportionate. Resilient. Defensible. — before volatility tests them.