[Senate Hearing 118-467]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 118-467
DIGGING DEEPER: BUILDING OUR
CRITICAL MINERALS WORKFORCE
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE SAFETY
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
EXAMINING BUILDING OUR CRITICAL MINERALS WORKFORCE
__________
JUNE 12, 2024
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
_______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
57-243 PDF WASHINGTON : 2025
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS
BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont, Chairman
PATTY MURRAY, Washington BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana,
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania Ranking Member
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin RAND PAUL, Kentucky
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
TIM KAINE, Virginia LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
TINA SMITH, Minnesota ROGER MARSHALL, M.D., Kansas
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
ED MARKEY, Massachusetts MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma
TED BUDD, North Carolina
Warren Gunnels, Majority Staff Director
Bill Dauster, Majority Deputy Staff Director
Amanda Lincoln, Minority Staff Director
Danielle Janowski, Minority Deputy Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE SAFETY
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado, Chairman
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin ROGER MARSHALL, M.D., Kansas
TIM KAINE, Virginia MITT ROMNEY, Utah
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
ED MARKEY, Massachusetts TED BUDD, North Carolina
BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont, (ex BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana, (ex
officio) officio)
C O N T E N T S
----------
STATEMENTS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2024
Page
Committee Members
Hickenlooper, Hon. John, Chairman, Subcommittee on Employment and
Workplace Safety, Opening statement............................ 1
Braun, Hon. Mike, Ranking Member, U.S. Senator from the State of
Indiana, Opening statement..................................... 3
Witnesses
Arnold, Barbara J., Ph.D., P.E., Chair of Mining Engineering,
Professor of Practice in Mining Engineering, The Pennsylvania
State University, University Park, PA.......................... 4
Prepared statement........................................... 6
Baskaran, Grace, Ph.D., Director of the Project on Critical
Minerals Security, Center for Strategic and International
Studies, Washington, DC........................................ 8
Prepared statement........................................... 10
Evans, Jon, President and CEO, Lithium Americas, Reno and
Winnemucca, NV................................................. 16
Prepared statement........................................... 18
Zisch, Bill, J. Steven Whisler Head of Mining Engineering,
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO........................... 19
Prepared statement........................................... 21
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.
Hickenlooper, Hon. John:
The United Steel, Paper and Forestry, Rubber, Manufacturing,
Energy, Allied Industrial and Service Workers International
Union (USW), Statement for the Record...................... 37
MP Materials Corp., Statement for the Record................. 41
DIGGING DEEPER: BUILDING OUR
CRITICAL MINERALS WORKFORCE
----------
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
U.S. Senate,
Subcommittee On Employment and Workplace Safety,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:35 p.m., in
room 562, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. John
Hickenlooper, presiding.
Present: Senators Hickenlooper [presiding], Casey, Smith,
and Braun.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR HICKENLOOPER
Senator Hickenlooper. The Subcommittee on Employment and
Workplace Safety will come to order.
Today's hearing is going to explore how we can
strategically build our critical minerals workforce. My co-
chair, Ranking Member Braun, and I will each give an opening
statement. Then, we'll introduce the witnesses and after the
witness give their testimony. Senators will have 5 minutes to
ask a round of questions.
Last month, the Subcommittee convened a hearing about the
importance of health and safety in the overall mining industry.
And our witnesses talked about America's mining history and
practices we can adopt to enhance the safety of our workers
today, and going into the future.
Today, we're going to dig deeper into the future, talk
about how to build the critical minerals workforce that our
Country's going to depend on for decades to come.
I think it's fair to say right now, America's in the middle
of a great transition to a clean economy. But to reach full
energy independence, we're going to need to build faster and to
build smarter. To power the transition, we're going to need
critical minerals just as we do the transition, and we're going
to need a lot of them. According to the International Energy
Agency, mineral demand could double by 2030 and quadruple by
2040. Those are sobering statistics to say the least.
Globally, we don't have nearly enough of some of these
minerals, but even for the minerals we do have, processing
facilities are controlled by a relatively small number of
countries. Not all of them are allied with our values, and even
if they were all our friends, we end up with bottlenecks in
supply and the resulting geopolitical competition.
As mineral demand rises, I think we're going to see that
vulnerability increase, as far as actors try to insert
themselves into our supply chain, manipulate prices for their
own benefit.
I think China's made it clear that they are aggressive in
this type of role, especially as in terms of processing
minerals that would be crucial for our national and for our
energy security.
As a couple of examples, China dominates 70 percent of rare
earth element production, 90 percent of the processing. These
minerals are crucial for wind turbines, for electric vehicles,
missile systems, I could go on. It's a long list, as you all
know.
To meet our clean energy goals, reduce our dependence on
China, we need to increase domestic production and processing
of critical minerals and strengthen our alliances with
international partners. Preparing for this new wave of domestic
minerals production it's a little bit like a jigsaw puzzle. All
the right pieces have to get in the right place at the right
time if this is really going to work.
A key piece of the puzzle is recruiting and training and
making sure you can retain a robust, talented, diverse,
resilient workforce that could address critical minerals.
It's estimated that the critical minerals workforce will
need to double over the next 5 years to just meet the needs we
now project. But instead of the workforce growing, what we've
seen in the last couple years is a decline. And over a longer
term, we've seen a decrease of roughly 40 percent over the last
30 years.
Many workers are retiring as that average age, got older
and older. Some have moved into other industries. I think even
more concerning our talent pipelines are not in shape. They're
not fit to be able to deliver the number of skilled workers we
need and making sure these workers have the right skills.
While China is graduating literally thousands of students
from mining related programs every year, the U.S. has only
about 600 students over total enrollment right now.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, we'll need at
least 70,000 more craftsmen to build out these work sites.
We'll also need surveying, mapping technicians to make sure
that we can find the mineral deposits. We're going to need
upskilling and reskilling our workforce to meet the diverse
demands that this is all going to require, especially for all
these workforce slots.
A lot of this has got to happen in rural communities. There
are certainly some bright lights in our State of Colorado. The
Colorado School of Mines is a leader, in the way in how you go
about training engineers and chemical processors and
geologists. As a recovering geologist myself, I'm sensitive to
the challenge involved in that educating process.
Unions like the United Steelworkers and International Union
of Operating Engineers are offering apprenticeship and other
training opportunities to train not just engineers, but
construction workers and heavy equipment operators, equipment
servicers.
This is all a great start, but we need to build and expand
these programs, and we need to learn from our international
partners like Australia and Canada, that have maintained their
energy in this regard over these last few decades, when we have
maybe backed off.
In many ways they are ahead of the game in training this
next generation of crucial mineral workforce. So, it's time to
get building, today we're going to get to hear from a panel of
experts, as we begin to craft a blueprint to expand the
critical minerals workforce.
I want to thank my co-chair, Senator Braun, and his staff
for working with us to host this hearing. And before I hand it
off to Senator Braun for his opening, I want to submit two
statements for the record. The first statement is from the
United Steel Workers Union. The other is from MP Materials, a
Nevada-based company in support of today's hearing.
[The following information can be found on page 37 in
Additional Material:]
Senator Hickenlooper. With that, I'll recognize Ranking
Member Braun for his opening statement, and to also introduce
our first witness.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BRAUN
Senator Braun. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Critical minerals
have been regarded as the building blocks of U.S. economic and
national security. The physical and chemical traits of these
unique materials allow them to be applied to advanced
technologies that can benefit our Nation in many ways.
Strengthening America's critical minerals helps to reduce
our reliance on getting these materials from adversarial
countries, and it seems to be a lot of that is at play
currently. Additionally, our critical minerals supply chain is
an important issue for strengthening American manufacturing and
keeping jobs here in the U.S. as part of a connected supply
chain.
Strength of America's critical minerals largely depend on
the strength of the workforce. And in so many different places
in our Country, the workforce just has not stayed up with the
demand. So, much of that has to do with how we educate kids and
advise them when they're in high school.
This should be starting in middle school, and a lot of the
programs that would've prepared kids for this have been
disbanded. And we don't have the guidance systems. We don't
have higher education working together, especially through
transparency on what these high demand, high wage jobs are.
To me that is simple and for too long, we've kind of just
hid behind a system that's not doing it well in many arenas,
not just critical minerals. This leads us into the issue of
improving that workforce development.
As with many industries facing shortages, we're trying to
still find that right mix. In my own State of Indiana, which is
the biggest manufacturing state per capita, we've been talking
about it for years. When I was in our state legislature back
seven, 8 years ago, we had 15-20 different programs spending a
billion dollars a year, not quite getting it right.
On my own, I built a business in my hometown and county.
Found out our school systems were stigmatizing against pathways
like this. Very simple, high demand, high wage jobs. Put it out
there. Know what the career pay is going to be, what starting
pay is, and what educational costs are going to be associated
with it. It's imperative that young people understand this
along with their parents or else we will miss opportunities.
The way to drive home this message is to make sure our kids
and their parents have full information and transparency.
We're going to talk about it, particularly today on
Critical Minerals. I get the opportunity here to introduce our
first witness Dr. Barbara Arnold, who is a professor of
Practice and Mining Engineering at the Penn State, which I
won't get into our competition with Indiana University and
Purdue with Penn State. Let's stay on a pleasant subject here.
Dr. Arnold has over 30 years of experience in the coal and
mineral industries, and over 20 years, she represented several
coal and mineral processing equipment companies in the U.S. and
consulted with coal companies and engineering contractors to
develop flow sheets for new coal preparation plants and plant
retrofits.
She's a recognized international expert in coal
preparation, and we welcome her expertise to this panel. Thank
you for being here. I Yield back. I think Dr. Arnold, you're
welcome to your opening statement.
STATEMENT OF BARBARA J. ARNOLD, PH.D., P.E., CHAIR OF MINING
ENGINEERING, PROFESSOR OF PRACTICE IN MINING ENGINEERING, THE
PENNSYLVANIA STATE UNIVERSITY, UNIVERSITY PARK, PA
Dr. Arnold. Thank you, Senators, staff, and guests. Good
afternoon, and thank you for the opportunity to address you on
a matter of utmost urgency, the need to expand our critical
minerals workforce.
My name's Barbara Arnold, a professor of Practice and chair
of the Mining Engineering Program at the Pennsylvania State
University. I teach and conduct research on mining health and
safety, focused on respirable dust and critical minerals,
assessing the domestic critical mineral resources, especially
in Appalachia.
The National Academies hosted a workshop in late January,
2024, supported by the United States Geological Survey titled,
Building Capacity for the U.S. Mineral Resources Workforce. The
workshop report was recently published.
Let me quote from that report. ``The 14 mining engineering
programs across the United States collectively graduated only
162 students in 2023. Falling far short of the estimated
employment demand for 400 to 600 mining engineering graduates
per year in the United States. By contrast, China's 45 mining
engineering programs currently enroll about 12,000 students and
graduate approximately 3000 annually, about 16 times the number
of graduates in the U.S.''
One might think that the need for critical minerals in a
stable domestic supply would encourage increased enrollment in
our mining engineering programs. But let me quote the NASEM
report again. ``A key concern expressed by several participants
is that negative public perceptions of mining can dissuade
students from considering a career in minerals extraction.
For many, the minerals industry is linked with the legacy
of environmental damage, which has been reinforced by negative
depictions of the industry and popular culture. To begin to
overcome this perception, several participants suggested
focusing on reframing the industry as being part of the
solution to environmental issues. Improving awareness of the
role of mining in addressing climate change and environmental
degradation could help to attract students who are passionate
about the environment''.
The mining industry itself is moving toward a digital and
autonomous future. We incorporate digital twins to optimize
mining and mineral processing technology: We fly drones to
monitor tailings, do aerial surveys of stockpiles and collect
water samples. Autonomous haul trucks and trains move materials
with automation and control technologies becoming increasingly
sophisticated.
The Society for Mining Metallurgy and Exploration, the lead
U.S. based Mining professional society, is focused on workforce
development. Their Ph.D., fellowship and career grant program
helped address faculty shortages along with research funding
for capacity building from the National Institute of
Occupational Safety and Health.
Those of us at the U.S. mining schools are revamping our
curricula to incorporate this ever-changing landscape. At Penn
State, we've added courses on automation and control and
sustainability.
Despite these efforts, we still need help attracting more
students into our programs. In spring 2023, we graduated only
four students with bachelor's degrees in mining engineering at
Penn State, they're all employed with an average salary of
$75,000. Our program should be attracting more students.
In the QS University rankings, our Penn State Mining
Engineering program is ranked second in the U.S. and 13th
globally up, from 17th last year. So, we should be attracting
talent.
Incoming students just don't know that mining exists. To
address this, we're offering our first ever MINING ROCKS! Penn
State Summer Mining Camp in August, free of charge to the first
20 students, thanks to support of our alumni and mining
industry partners.
During the NASEM workshop, several other actions were
suggested. One specific piece of suggestion was, to make sure
that the K-12 curriculum incorporates the significance of
minerals in our daily lives. For example, there are 62
different elements in a cell phone. All sourced from mining,
electric vehicles require much more copper and other critical
minerals than conventional cars. Wind turbines and solar panels
all require critical minerals.
The 2021 report by the International Energy Agency titled
The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions, says
that mineral demand will increase by about four times by 2040
to meet climate goals. Where will the minerals come from? Who
will mine the minerals safely and responsibly? Everyone must
understand that if it can't be grown, it has to be mined.
Miners play a crucial role in our society. They provide
fertilizers in the metal for farm implements. They provide
metals for trucks for catalytic converters in those trucks to
reduce pollution, and they provide all the critical minerals in
our increasingly high-tech everyday lives.
Let's take a moment to appreciate their hard work and
dedication. Thank a miner every day. Thank you for allowing me
to discuss the critical mineral workforce with you today.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Arnold follows.]
prepared statement of barbara arnold
Senators, staff, and guests. Good afternoon and thank you for the
opportunity to address you regarding the urgent need to expand our
critical minerals workforce. My name is Barbara Arnold, a professor of
practice and chair of the mining engineering program at The
Pennsylvania State University. I teach and conduct research on mine
health and safety focused on respirable dust and on critical minerals,
assessing the domestic critical mineral resource especially in
Appalachia. I obtained my BS in mining engineering and MS and Ph.D., in
mineral processing from Penn State, conducted coal beneficiation
research at the Electric Power Research Institute's Coal Cleaning Test
Facility in Homer City, PA, and then started my own company, selling
coal and mineral processing equipment to engineering contractors and
coal and mineral companies, developing flowsheets for coal preparation
plant retrofits and new construction. In 2020, I joined the faculty at
Penn State.
Allow me to start by saying that there are already issues related
to the mining and mineral industry workforce, skilled labor as well as
scientists and engineers. This will translate to even greater needs for
the critical mineral workforce as we will need even more people
equipped with mineral exploration, processing, extractive metallurgy,
and refining backgrounds. We have 14 mining engineering programs in the
U.S. and even fewer economic geology or processing and metallurgy
programs.
Related to the current mining and mineral industry workforce
issues, the National Academies hosted a workshop in late January 2024
that was supported by the United States Geological Survey titled,
Building Capacity for the U.S. Mineral Resources Workforce. The
workshop report was recently published. Let me quote from that report:
Kecojevic described a sharp drop-off in mining engineering
enrollments, from a collective total of 1,449 U.S.
undergraduate students in 2015 to just 590 in 2023, a 60
percent decline over 9 years. The 14 mining engineering
programs across the United States collectively graduated only
162 students in 2023, falling far short of the estimated
employment demand for 400-600 mining engineering graduates per
year in the United States. By contrast, China's 45 mining
engineering programs currently enroll about 12,000 students and
graduate approximately 3,000 a year--about 16 times the number
of graduates in the United States. Keane stated that while
enrollment in geosciences undergraduate programs may have
rebounded to early 2010's levels following the COVID-19
pandemic, there was a nearly 50 percent drop in enrollment in
geoscience graduate programs after 2019. At the same time,
demand is rising for geoscience support activities and
professional services for mining.
One might think that the need for critical minerals and a domestic
supply of these would encourage increased enrollment in our mining
engineering programs. But let me quote the NASEM report again:
A key concern, expressed by several participants, is that
negative public perceptions of mining can dissuade students
from considering a career in minerals extraction. Climate
change and environmental degradation are prominent issues for
the current generation, and for many, the minerals industry is
linked with a legacy of environmental damage, which has been
reinforced by negative depictions of the industry in popular
culture. To begin to overcome this perception, several
participants suggested focusing on reframing the industry as
being part of the solution to environmental issues. For
example, minerals extraction provides materials necessary for
the technologies that play an important role in achieving
decarbonization, such as wind turbines, solar panels, and
electric vehicles. Improving awareness of the role of mining in
addressing climate change and environmental degradation could
help to attract students who are passionate about the
environment. ``Without turning a blind eye to the real
environmental damage that's been done in the history of mining,
we can still be very proud of mining and what it has done for
our planet,'' Misael Cabrera, University of Arizona, said. ``In
fact, modern civilization is simply not possible--medicine,
computing, data analytics, take your pick--none of it is
possible without minerals, and therefore without mining.''
Cabrera also pointed to mine waste, remining, and reclamation
as opportunities for the minerals industry to advance
environmental stewardship.
What can those of us in the trenches do? The Society for Mining,
Metallurgy, and Exploration (SME), the lead U.S. based mining
professional society, is taking this issue very seriously, and one of
its strategic committees is focused on workforce development. As early
as 2014, SME released a white paper titled, Workforce Trends in the
U.S. Mining Industry, indicating significant shortages in scientists,
engineers, skilled labor. At that time, SME addressed another critical
need--the number of faculty available for our mining engineering
programs. Their Ph.D., fellowship and career grant program helped
address this along with research funding for capacity building from the
National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. SME notably is
also promoting a series of videos, Jobs of Tomorrow, available on
YouTube. Yes, jobs of tomorrow.
The mining industry itself is moving toward a digital future. We
incorporate digital twins for optimization of mining and mineral
processing technology; we fly drones to monitor tailings impoundments,
do areal surveys of stockpiles, and collect water samples. Autonomous
haul trucks and trains move materials. Automation and control
technologies are becoming more and more sophisticated. Some of this
will help to address worker shortages. However, we still need skilled
scientists and engineers to ensure that we deliver our mined products
in the safest and most responsible way and to develop new technologies
to mine and process ores and waste materials. A recent report, called
The Digital Underground, from Mining Magazine and Mining Monthly,
discusses how data analytics will be key in incorporating the large
data streams coming from underground mining equipment. Another report
could be written on the digital surface mine or the digital processing
plant.
Those of us at the U.S. mining schools continue to address our
curricula to incorporate this ever-changing landscape. At Penn State,
we've added courses on automation and control and sustainability.
Despite these efforts, we still struggle to attract more students into
our programs. In spring 2023, we graduated only four students with
bachelor's degrees in mining engineering at Penn State. One is working
for an engineering company in Utah, one in New York and one in
Baltimore working in the aggregates industry. The fourth recently left
an aggregates company in Virginia to work with a gold company in South
Carolina. Their average starting salary with their bachelor's degree
was $75,000. This May, we graduated two who are starting their careers
with aggregate companies, and a third will graduate in December. Good
paying jobs, an increasingly safe and environmentally conscious
industry, applications of high technology, addressing a key supply
chain component--if it can't be grown, it must be mined. Why do we not
have more students? In the QS university rankings, our Penn State
mining engineering program is ranked second in the U.S. and thirteenth
globally (up from seventeenth last year), so we should be attracting
talent. We know that the number of traditional-aged college students is
decreasing. We know that other industries are also seeing a shortfall
of workers. But if we don't address the critical need for more mining
and mineral processing engineers, we will not be able to meet our
domestic critical mineral needs.
We have offered seminars to students interested in STEM fields, and
we have begun collaborating more closely with our College of
Engineering advising staff. We're offering our first-ever MINING ROCKS!
Penn State Summer Mining Camp in August that is free-of-charge to the
first 20 students that sign up. It's free-of-charge because it's being
sponsored by our alumni and mining industry contacts. The students that
do enter our program often receive scholarships from our program
endowments. We encourage them to apply for the many scholarships that
are available for students in the industry. They visit mines, attend
industry conferences, and hear from industry speakers. Many companies
come to recruit interns and full-time employees each fall. Our students
get multiple job offers. Our introductory mining course has about 70
students enrolled in both the Fall and Spring semesters. Most are
upper-level students who are taking it as an elective and are well past
considering mining engineering as a major at that point. Incoming
students just don't know that mining exists. And it's not just at Penn
State. The University of Arizona's program surveyed incoming students
and found that many students were not aware of mining engineering as a
career. That's in a state that is ranked No. 2 in the value of non-fuel
mineral production in the U.S. (Minerals Commodity Summary, USGS,
2024). Arizona produces cement, copper, molybdenum mineral
concentrates, sand and gravel for construction, and crushed stone and
their principal commodities.
Some actions were suggested during the NASEM workshop. One specific
action is to include the importance of minerals in our daily lives in
K-12 curriculum. There are 62 different elements in a cell phone--all
need to be mined. Electric vehicles require much more copper and other
critical minerals than conventional cars. Wind turbines and solar
panels all require critical minerals.
According to a 2021 report by the International Energy Agency
titled, The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions,
mineral demand will increase by about four times by 2040 to meet
climate goals. Where will the minerals come from? Who will mine the
minerals safely and responsibly? We need everyone to understand that if
it can't be grown, it must be mined.
Social media is a great place to see memes thanking farmers or
thanking truck drivers. I agree that we should. But we also need to be
thanking miners. Miners provide the fertilizers and the metal for farm
implements. Miners provide metals for trucks and the catalysts for
catalytic converters in those trucks to reduce pollution. And they
provide all the critical minerals in our increasingly high-tech
everyday lives. Thank a miner every day!
Thank you for allowing me to discuss the critical mineral workforce
with you today. I am happy to answer any questions.
______
Senator Hickenlooper. Thank you, Dr. Arnold. I will make
sure I thank a miner today, and in future days. Now, I'm happy
to introduce our next guest, Dr. Gracelin Baskaran. Dr.
Baskaran is the director of the project on Critical Mineral
Security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Dr. Baskaran has garnered experience studying international and
domestic critical minerals production, and regularly offers her
expertise at universities and policy forums of all sizes in all
shapes.
Dr. Baskaran.
STATEMENT OF GRACELIN BASKARAN, PH.D., DIRECTOR OF THE PROJECT
ON CRITICAL MINERALS SECURITY, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND
INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, WASHINGTON, DC
Dr. Baskaran. Chairman Hickenlooper, Ranking Member Braun,
and distinguished Members, thank you so much for having me.
I'm honored to share my views on this topic today. I'd like
to reflect a bit on how workforce has become an impediment to
reducing our reliance on China, both domestically and
internationally.
By way of introduction, and I think it's a little bit of a
background, is I started in the mining industry 11 years ago
through a Fulbright Fellowship from the U.S. State Department.
And they very kindly dropped me into South Africa's platinum
belt, which was a bit of a culture shock at the time. But I
really saw the long-term value of the sector, both economically
and technologically, acknowledging how, for example, the
automotive industry was changing, I grew up in metro Detroit.
My career, which has taken me from the depths of the mines
in South Africa through a Ph.D., into the halls of Washington,
began with a Fulbright. And that framed some of my
recommendations that I would put forward about how we can
actually make existing mechanisms better fit for purpose.
Dr. Arnold did a great job, I don't need to go too far down
the numbers again. But we know that the Chinese education
system, which has over 38 minerals processing schools and over
44 mine engineering programs, has really enabled them to build
this dominant hold they have both on production and processing
globally.
Central South University, China's biggest program, graduate
about 1,000 undergraduates and 500 graduates alone ready to
build that. When China cutoff our rare earth processing
technology exports, it really struck us with a shortfall that
we have in the knowledge to deploy that technology.
A report published by the U.S. Department of Interior noted
that the mining industry is having difficulty attracting young
professionals. They always say if there's two industries that
are not attractive for the youth, it's at being a farmer and
being a miner.
There's two things again, I think Dr. Arnold hit really
well. One is understanding its tech base now. We're not in an
era of picks and wheelbarrows. We're really in an era of like
what essentially resembles a NASA control room, if you've spent
a lot of times at new modern mines. And the second is that
mining is far more responsible than it was two decades ago. And
as such, it doesn't have that negative connotation.
There's three strategies that I would quickly propose. So,
the first is to create a dedicated Fulbright program for the
mining industry. Right now, we have the Fulbright Arctic
Initiative, Fulbright Hays for school age educators and
administrators. We have a Fulbright program for people building
expertise in Europe.
We have another one for artists, but a Fulbright program
that does two things. It takes STEM graduates from the United
States and sends them to programs--we have four of the top 12
mining programs in the world in Canada, four in Australia,
there's one in Saudi. It opens up potential to send our STEM
graduates abroad, but it also gives us potential to bring
faculty from abroad to the United States, to help build mining
programs in geology programs.
I grew up in a world of geology. My dad is a geology
professor, and he said mining has just never been a presence
and we need to bring that expertise to our geology and
environmental science program.
Second one I'm sure we'll come back to, is increasing NSF,
National Science Foundation funding. The National Science
Foundation has 15 focus areas. Chemicals and materials is
perhaps the closest to mining, but it's still largely absent.
And if you look at the active grant opportunities from the NSF,
just nine out of 815 of them are for mining, which is about 1.1
percent.
The third mechanism under there is actually expanding the
infrastructure Investment Jobs Act. Right now, there's
provisions to expand energy jobs, but expanding energy advisory
work to mining, to open up those jobs actually lets us ensure
that we have the feed stock needed to produce a very renewable
energy technology that we set out to build.
The second bucket is saying collaboration between mining
companies and universities, there's a lot of scope. We have a
lot of expertise in the private sector, but opening up
scholarships, which we can come back to as being a best
practice elsewhere.
Anglo American, for example, has funded a significant
amount of the mining expertise built in South Africa over the
years by putting in the bursaries and the graduates go back and
work for them afterwards. There are mechanisms that are budget
neutral in that way that we can support.
Finally, we need to leverage our U.S. military academies.
If we go back and look, many of our academy trained engineers
built the railroads and bridges for westward expansion, and
they were instrumental in the industrial revolution. It's
really time we have a national security challenge on our hand
to leverage those institutions.
There are only two American CEOs of mining majors. One is
Richard Adkerson at Freeport-McMoRan. The other is Bob Wilt at
Ma'aden. And Bob was an Alcoa executive for many years. And
then is now, after doing his career with the Army, he's now
leading one of the fastest growing mining companies in the
world built on that expertise.
At CSIS we're now planning our first National Security and
Critical Mineral summit to help fill that gap. So, I think it's
a multi-dimensional challenge. I think we have the solutions at
hand as the United States, and I look forward to discussing
more how we can do that.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Baskaran follows.]
prepared statement of gracelin baskaran
Chairman Hickenlooper, Ranking Member Braun, and distinguished
Members of the Subcommittee, I am honored to share my views with you on
this important topic. CSIS does not take policy positions, so the views
represented in this testimony are my own and not those of my employer.
In my testimony, I would like to reflect on how the workforce became a
key impediment to reducing our reliance on China for key minerals
required for national, economic and energy security. I will then look
at potential solutions: how the United States can make existing tools,
such as the Fulbright program, National Science Foundation, and the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, better fit for supporting our
minerals security needs, how we can support partnerships between mining
companies and universities to attract young talent, and how we can
leverage our military academies to help meet our workforce needs.
My name is Dr. Gracelin Baskaran. I am the Director of the Project
on Critical Minerals Security at the Center for Strategic and
International Studies (CSIS). I started in the mining industry 11 years
ago, when the U.S. State Department awarded me a Fulbright Fellowship.
Through my Fulbright, I spent a year in South Africa's platinum belt,
including time in the mines, and saw the long-term value of the
sector--both economically and technologically. I went on to do a Ph.D.,
at the University of Cambridge on the platinum sector and later co-
authored a book on leveraging mining, oil and gas for economic
transformation amidst decarbonization. My career, which has taken me
from the depths of mines in South Africa, such as Twickenham and
Mogalakwena, to the halls of Washington DC, began with the Fulbright.
At CSIS, I now work to increase our economic and national security
by reducing vulnerability in our supply chains for critical minerals.
My work informs the White House National Security Council, State
Department, Department of Energy, Development Finance Corporation, U.S.
Embassies globally, and bipartisan and bicameral Members of Congress.
My work also takes me to resource-rich jurisdictions around the world,
where I work with industry players from 8 of the biggest Western mining
companies by market capitalization, government officials from the
United States, Middle East, Africa and Latin America, and members of
civil society to understand how we can effectively build minerals
security. This has given me perspectives that reflect the realities on
the ground both domestically and internationally.
Background
Minerals are important for national, economic and energy security.
Their strategic value to the United States motivated an active minerals
policy in the 20th century. In 1910, the United States Department of
Interior created the United States Bureau of Mines with the goal of
overseeing domestic mining activities and securing a sufficient mineral
supply. The Bureau supported scientific studies and knowledge sharing
about mineral resource extraction, processing, utilization, and health
and safety standards. In 1996, Congress voted to close the Bureau and
decentralize some of its responsibilities amongst several other
departments. A Department of Interior report published in 2023 noted
that, ``At the end of the 20th century, the United States lost its
position as the global leader in mining, both in terms of total
production and the development of cutting-edge mining technology.'' \1\
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\1\ U.S. Department of the Interior. Recommendations to Improve
Mining on Public Lands. September 2023.
Over the last three decades, China has become a dominant player in
the supply chains of minerals key to national and energy security. Even
if it is a marginal producer directly, China finances and imports from
the rest of the world to control 65 percent to 90 percent of global
supply of key metals. \2\ This concentration is the result of decades
of industrial strategy and foreign policy from Beijing. It is also a
strategic challenge for the United States, given the importance of
strengthening national security and meeting energy needs while
geopolitical tensions between the two countries rise. China has
developed a robust workforce that has allowed it to develop an absolute
advantage in these supply chains.
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\2\ Baskaran, G. What China's Ban on Rare Earths Processing
Technology Exports Means. Center for Strategic and International
Studies. January 8, 2024.
Rare earth elements, nickel, lithium, germanium and gallium are
critical inputs for defense systems, including precision guided
munitions, strategic nuclear applications and several missile classes,
lasers that serve as range fingers and target designators, military
information communication technology, modern naval missiles, weapon
systems, tanks, and radar modules. They are the backbone of national
security. Copper, lithium, nickel, manganese, cobalt, graphite, zinc,
and rare earth elements are necessary for meeting our global
decarbonization goals by manufacturing and deploying offshore and
onshore wind, stationary and electric vehicle batteries, solar
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photovoltaics (PV), nuclear power and natural gas.
The United States, and much of the globe, is most reliant on China
for its critical minerals supply. \3\ Of the 50 minerals included in
the 2022 Final List of Critical Minerals produced by the USGS, the
United States had larger than a 50 percent reliance on imports for 31
\4\, \5\ and was wholly import reliant for 12. The United States is
wholly reliant on China for 9 of them. \6\ China has already
demonstrated a willingness to use export controls or quotas on critical
minerals as a geopolitical tool.
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\3\ Stanford University. Assessing the U.S.-China Competition for
Minerals Crucial to the Development of Emerging Technologies. October
1, 2023.
\4\ National Mining Association. U.S. Reaches Highest Recorded
Mineral Import Reliance. January 31, 2023.
\5\ This includes 14 lanthanides, which are part of the rare earth
elements group.
\6\ Department of the Interior. Recommendations to Improve Mining
on Public Lands. September 2023.
The United States needs a strategy for reducing dependency and
strengthening mineral supply. The last two administrations have set out
to improve supply through better exploration, production, recycling,
and reprocessing of critical minerals. In 2017, President Donald Trump
issued Executive order 13817, to facilitate better management of
critical minerals to strengthen energy security and executive
prosperity. An output of this was an inter-agency report from the
Secretaries of Commerce, Defense, Interior and Energy and the U.S.
Trade Representative on critical minerals. One of the six calls to
action in the report was to, ``Enhance International Trade and
Cooperation Related to Critical Minerals: [Identify] options for
accessing and developing critical minerals through investment and trade
with America's allies, discusses areas for international collaboration
and cooperation.'' \7\ In 2021, President Biden issued Executive Order
14017 which ordered a review of vulnerability in the U.S. critical
mineral and material supply chain. Subsequently, a supply chain
assessment was released by the Administration that found over-reliance
on foreign sources and adversarial nations for critical minerals and
materials posed national and economic security threats. The White House
published its ``Plan to Revitalize American Manufacturing and Secure
Critical Supply Chains'' in 2022, where it announced plans to increase
domestic processing capacity of rare earth minerals, copper, nickel,
lithium, and cobalt.
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\7\ U.S. Department of Commerce. A Federal Strategy to Ensure
Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals.
The Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) has a stockpile of 47
commodities worth more than $1.5 billion. The stockpile was first
established after World War 1. In February 2022, Congress authorized $1
billion for the National Defense Stockpile to acquire strategic and
critical materials to increase its buffer in the event of crises and
disruptions in supply chains. \8\
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\8\ Barna, S., Hastings, A. and Pearce, M. 2023 NDAA Provides New
Opportunities for Industry. National Defense Magazine. February 7,
2023.
Over the last few years, Congress also passed the Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), the CHIPS and Science Act, and the
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which authorized and provided over $8.5
billion in funding for critical minerals activities. \9\ Specifically,
the IRA seeks to prioritize domestic production of minerals. The Clean
Vehicle Tax Credit and the Advanced Manufacturing Production Tax Credit
of 2022 extend tax credits only to vehicles that meet threshold
requirements for critical materials sourced domestically and from
countries with which the United States has a free trade agreement.
These tax credits and spending programs are uncoordinated and mostly
focused on domestic mining and processing.
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\9\ Broberg, D. and Jacobs, J. Expanding Domestic Critical Mineral
Supply Chains. Bipartisan Policy Center. March 15, 2023.
However, the domestic-only approach to critical minerals cannot
work. Geologically, a significant share of the minerals we need are not
located in the United States or economically recoverable here. The
United States has less than 1 percent of the world's nickel, cobalt,
and graphite, 1.3 percent of the world's rare earths, and 1.5 percent
of the world's manganese, which is a non-substitutable metal required
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for all steel production.
The United States ability to build both its domestic and
international capacity in mining will require a skilled workforce,
which we have a significant deficit for. A recent McKinsey survey
revealed that 71 percent of mining leaders stated that human capital
shortages are preventing them from reaching their production targets
and strategic goals. \10\ We need mining engineers, geologists and
geoscientists, metallurgists, geophysicists, economists, and senior
management that we can deploy domestically and internationally. An
analysis from CSIS notes:
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\10\ Has mining lost its luster? Why talent is moving elsewhere
and how to bring them back. February 14, 2023.
``More than half the current domestic mining workforce will
need to be retired and replaced by 2029 (roughly 221,000
workers). This number stands in stark contrast to the total of
just 327 degrees awarded in 2020 in mining and mineral
engineering and a 39 percent net drop in graduations in the
United States since 2016. University programs tasked with
creating this workforce have also been decreasing, with the
number of mining and mineral engineering programs in the United
States dropping from 25 in 1982 to 15 in 2023. This is in stark
contrast to China, which has over 38 mineral processing schools
and upwards of 44 mining engineering programs. Central South
University, China's largest mineral processing program, has
1,000 undergraduates and 500 graduate students alone ready to
accomplish China's mineral ambitions.'' \11\
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\11\ Hale, T. The United States Needs More than Mining Engineers
to Solve Its Critical Mineral Challenges. May 8, 2023.
As the graph below shows, without this, we will not be able to meet
future minerals demand, which will grow significantly over the next 30
years, largely driven by clean energy technology. In 2020, the world
needed approximately 8 million metric tons of minerals for the
deployment of clean energy technologies--electric vehicles, electricity
networks, solar and wind technology, battery storage, low-carbon power
generation and hydrogen. In 2030--just 6 years from now--we will need
roughly 50 million metric tons--over a sixfold increase. In 2040, this
increases to about 105 million metric tons--a thirteenfold increase
from 2020. And by 2050, we will need about 150 million tons--nearly a
19 fold increase. Training a workforce to meet future demand is
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imperative and it requires efforts that begin as soon as possible.
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
.epsAddressing the Workforce Shortage
Repurposing Existing Instruments to Build the Mining Workforce
The Department of Interior report published in 2023 noted that, ``A
lack of educational programs for building expertise in mining and
mining oversight and a lack of interest in mining among the cohort of
students who will become the managers of tomorrow compound a shortage
of properly trained workers.'' \12\
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\12\ U.S. Department of the Interior. Recommendations to Improve
Mining on Public Lands. September 2023.
My dad is the Chair of the Geology Department at Wayne State
University in Detroit. As I've built my own career in the mining
industry, we have discussed how geology, environmental science and
engineering graduates in the United States are not moving to the mining
sector. The United States needs to support embedding mining workstreams
into geology and engineering programs. The need to build a mining
workforce is a more recent priority--so few programs have historical
depth here. Catching up in this area will require a significant
increase in capacity building and financing. This is for two reasons.
First, academic programs largely succeed or fail based on available
funding--particularly for research and scholarships. Second, there is
often a lack of expertise to build these programs. This will require
bringing in both skilled industry experts and faculty from mining
programs around the world to cross-pollinate knowledge and build these
programs--in particular Australia and Canada have deep academic
expertise in the mining sector. The 2024 QS World University Rankings
for mineral and mineral engineering show that one out of the top 12
programs in the world are American--Colorado School of Mines. Of the
other 11, there are four in Australia and Canada and one in Russia,
Chile and Saudi Arabia. \13\
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\13\ QS World University Rankings by Subject 2024: Mineral &
Mining Engineering. https://www.topuniversities.com/university-subject-
rankings/mineral-mining-engineering.
A key solution to achieving these two goals is to make existing
mechanisms better fit for mining workforce development. With that in
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mind, I can make three suggestions:
The first is creating a dedicated Fulbright program for mining,
minerals processing, and recycling. There are already a number of
Fulbright programs--the Fulbright Arctic Initiative, the Fulbright Hays
Program for K-14 teachers and administrators, Fulbright United States
Scholar program for United States scholars and artists, Fulbright
European Union Scholar-in-Residence (EUSIR) Program to strengthen
United States expertise in European Affairs, and Fulbright Specialist
Program to send U.S. faculty abroad to serve as expert consults and do
faculty development, amongst others. A Fulbright program for mining to
bring mining experts and faculty to the United States and send
undergraduate and graduate students to top mining institutions abroad
offers a real opportunity to both establish and expand mining programs
in the United States and allow our students, particularly in STEM-
related mining fields, to develop the necessary skills and knowledge to
enter the modern minerals workforce.
The second is increasing targeted funding to the National Science
Foundation (NSF) for mining-related research and capacity building. The
NSF is an independent Federal agency that supports science and
engineering in all 50 U.S. states and U.S. territories. In 2023, the
NSF's enacted budget was $9.9 billion, and they supported over 2,000
organizations in every state and U.S. territory.
The NSF has 15 focus areas--ranging from the arctic
and Antarctic to astronomy and biology. Chemicals and materials
are perhaps the closest to the mining sector--but it's still
not fit to building mining expertise. The objective of this
effort is ``breakthroughs in chemistry and materials science
that enhance nearly every aspect of daily life, from
pharmaceuticals to plastics, environmental cleanup to battling
pandemics.'' Mining is notably absent. \14\
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\14\ The full list of focus areas include the arctic and Antarctic
to astronomy and chemistry and materials, computing, diversity in STEM,
earth and environment, education and training, engineering, facilities
and infrastructure, mathematics, people and society, physics, research
partnerships and interdisciplinary convergence and transformative
research.
The NSF also has 11 technology focus areas--ranging
from artificial intelligence to biotechnology and
cyberinfrastructure. \15\Advanced materials are closest to the
mining industry and the institution notes that ``NSF invests in
the discovery of new materials and processing methods that can
unlock innovations across a wide range of sectors--such as
medicine, agriculture, electronics, manufacturing, energy and
national security.'' Mining is inadequate in this program.
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\15\ The full list of the NSF's 11 technology focus areas is
advanced manufacturing, advanced materials, artificial intelligence,
biotechnology, communications and wireless, cyberinfrastructure and
advanced computing, cybersecurity, disaster risk and resilience, energy
technology, quantum information science and technology, semiconductors
and microcolonies.
Mining remains vastly underfunded by the NSF--just 9
of 815--or 1.1 percent of active grant opportunities are for
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minerals.
The CHIPS Act of 2022 (Section 10359) authorized funds for the NSF
to increase its work on critical minerals mining and development. \16\
It includes provisions for institutions of higher education or
nonprofits to offer training and research opportunities to
undergraduate and graduate students, preparing the next generation of
mining engineers and researchers. Funding for these programs has not
been appropriated and could be included in the appropriations
legislation for fiscal year 2025.
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\16\ H.R. 4346--Chips and Science Act. https://www.Congress.gov/
bill/117th-congress/house-bill/4346.
Third, widen the sectoral scope of section 40211 of the IIJA which
mandated that the Department of Energy create a 21st Century Energy
Workforce Advisory Board to evaluate the requirements of the domestic
energy workforce. The Board has also been mandated to develop
strategies to provide opportunities for students to qualify to work in
the energy sector and identify avenues for the Department of Energy to
work with Federal agencies and nongovernmental organizations to drive.
\17\ It is crucial for this program to go beyond an energy workforce
and examine the needs of the mining workforce since the mining sector
is essential for the implementation of nearly all new energy
technologies. Without upstream support, the downstream renewable energy
development will be impossible.
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\17\ Energy and Minerals Provisions in the Infrastructure
Investment and Jobs Act (P.L. 117-58). Congressional Research Service.
https://crsreports.Congress.gov/product/pdf/R/R47034.
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Partnerships Between Mining Companies and Universities
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median age of a
worker in the United States mining industry is 42, which underscores
the need to attract younger generations. \18\ There needs to be a
fundamental rebranding of the mining industry. The report published by
the United States Department of the Interior--Recommendations to
Improve Mining on Public Lands--in 2023 notes that ``The mining
industry is having difficulty attracting young professionals and
building a workforce. One major obstacle appears to be the negative
public perception of the industry.'' \19\ There are two key areas for
rebranding.
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\18\ Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey.
https://www.bls.gov/cps/cpsaat18b.htm.
\19\ United States Department of the Interior. Recommendations to
Improve Mining on Public Lands. September 2023.
The first is that the industry is that the industry is tech-based.
The modern mining industry is no longer one that uses picks and
wheelbarrows--it runs on satellite imaging, artificial intelligence,
advanced analytics, automation, robotics, and manufacturing 4.0. I've
been to various mines that are entirely run out of what resembles a
mission control room--blasting, production, and transportation of
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minerals.
Second, significant advances have been made in further improving
the environmental and social impacts of mining. Responsible mining is a
core focus area for nearly all Western companies. The mining industry
has a goal of zero fatalities and zero injuries, amongst a range of
other Environmental, Social and Governance targets. In the United
States, injuries in mines have been reduced by 58 percent over the last
15 years while fatalities have decreased by 55 percent during that same
time window. \20\ Globally, institutions like the International Council
of Minerals and Metals (ICMM), a key industry association for
responsible mining, have worked with their members to improve human
rights, health and safety, environmental performance, conservation of
biodiversity, and social performance. Earlier this year, the ICMM,
Mining Association of Canada, World Gold Council and Copper Mark
launched a process to create a consolidated global standard for
responsible mining.
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\20\ National Mining Association. Improving Mine Safety and
Health. https://nma.org/category/safety-and-health/.
This means that mining is more technology-based and responsible
than ever before. From a financial perspective, there is incentive for
young people to go into mining. The average annual salary for a miner
in 2023 was $94,848--which is well above the United States average wage
of $72,609. This means that the average worker in the mining industry
makes 31 percent more than the national average. \21\ Furthermore, as
the shortage of workforce grows, supply and demand dynamics should
drive wages up further.
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\21\ National Mining Association. Annual Mining Wages vs. All
Industries, 2023. https://nma.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/annual-
mining-wages-state-23-1.pdf.
It is in the interest of mining companies to build their workforce,
particularly with young people. Establishing a Federal program to
coordinate collaboration between mining companies and universities to
strengthen the development of the mining workforce, particularly in
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STEM fields, enhance research and promote innovation in the industry.
Mining companies can provide curriculum support to reflect the
latest industry trends and technological advancements and experts
working in the mining sector can deliver guest lectures and conduct
workshops to give students field experience and share practical
knowledge. Mining firms can also provide internships and co-op programs
so students can get paid hands-on experience ahead of graduation, for
an easier and more experienced transition to the workforce.
Another key avenue of support for the mining sector is by providing
scholarships to students. This has long been used in other mining
jurisdictions. For example, in South Africa, where I worked for 7
years, companies like Anglo American have financed many students over
the years on the condition that they come back and work for the company
after graduation. This is particularly useful to encourage
socioeconomically disadvantaged students--who are often
underrepresented in the industry--to enter the field, thereby
supporting diversity efforts.
Leveraging U.S. Military Academies to Build Tomorrow's Leaders
The primary purpose of U.S. military institutions including the
United States Military Academy, United States Naval Academy, United
States Air Force Academy, and United States Coast Guard, amongst other
institutions is to build future military leaders. Academy-trained
engineers built the railroads and bridges for westwards expansion and
were instrumental in the Industrial Revolution. It's time to enable
them to answer the call for another national security challenge.
I was privileged to speak at West Point on critical minerals in
February 2024. Lieutenant General Jonathan Braga--who is serving as the
commanding general of the United States Army Special Operations
Command--provided the keynote for the event. The interest from cadets
afterward was clear. They are our future leaders--they will go on to be
political leaders, cabinet members, Ambassadors, and even mining
executives that can advance United States mineral interests.
Mining executives have a key role to play in advancing strategic
mining objectives, including talent development and pursuing national
security goals. They require an understanding of engineering, diplomacy
and strategy. There is a clear need to develop a workforce that is
capable of leading mining companies. There are only two American CEOs
of large market cap mining companies that I'm aware of--Richard
Adkerson at Freeport McMoRan and Bob Wilt, an American West Point
graduate and Army veteran from the Gulf War. After a long career at
Alcoa, an American company, Bob is now the CEO at Ma'aden, one of the
fastest growing mining companies in the world. The experience he gained
in engineering, diplomacy and strategy at both West Point and his
subsequent military career has been valuable. Scaling up the number of
American mining executives is critical if we are to build U.S.
leadership in the mining sector--and our military academies are an
excellent place to do this.
At CSIS, we are planning the first national security and critical
minerals summit, which will be held in October. Our speakers will
include many West Point alumni--former U.S. cabinet members,
Ambassadors and a mining executive. Our goals are two-fold. The first
is to give cadets much needed exposure to the importance of critical
minerals and what careers in the mining industry look like. The second
is to give faculty more exposure to critical minerals issues, which the
United States has disregarded for the last 30 years. Upscaling support
to initiatives like this is key.
Conclusion
The future of meeting American minerals security needs will require
both domestic and international mining given the distribution of
resources. In my conversations with industry, workforce shortages are
universally cited as limitation. The United States may have closed its
Bureau of Mines in 1996--but investing in workforce development must be
a priority to reduce our reliance on China. Without an adequate supply
of mining engineers, geologists and geoscientists, metallurgists,
geophysicists, economists, and senior management that we can deploy
domestically and internationally, China will continue to have the upper
hand, leaving our national, economic and energy security highly
vulnerable to disruption.
______
Senator Hickenlooper. Great. Thank you for Dr. Baskaran.
Next, we'll have Mr. Jon Evans. Mr. Evans is the president, CEO
of Lithium Americas, which is building a lithium mine and
chemical facility in northern Nevada. John's been with the
company since 2017, but he has over 20 years' experience in
operating and managing various businesses, including running
FMC corporations, lithium division, Mr. Evans.
STATEMENT OF JON EVANS, PRESIDENT, AND CEO, LITHIUM AMERICAS,
RENO, AND WINNEMUCCA, NV
Mr. Evans. Thank you, Senator, Chairman Hickenlooper,
Ranking Member Braun, and Members of the Subcommittee. My name
is Jon Evans and I am the president, CEO of Lithium America's
Corporation. Greatly appreciate your focus on workforce
development for critical minerals development. Finding the
skilled workforce in my project and industry needs to thrive is
a significant challenge, and I commend you for working to
address this important issue.
Lithium Americas is building a major lithium mine and
processing facility in northern Nevada called the Thacker Pass
Project. We've been working on Thacker Pass for more than a
decade and are pleased to be fully permitted and funded to move
forward with this essential project.
Once in operation in 2027, we'll produce enough refined
lithium carbonate for approximately 800,000 electric vehicle
batteries per year. That's a market improvement on the U.S.'s
ability to provide materials we need. To start the projects
offtake will be sold exclusively to General Motors. This will
profoundly assist GM with their transition to electric
vehicles.
Workforce development is a challenge that we're trying to
meet head on. Lithium Americas will utilize as many as 2000
skilled workers to build Thacker Pass. To ensure we get the
workers we need in a remote area of Nevada, we've entered into
a Project Labor Agreement with a North American Building Trades
Union. NABTU knows how to recruit and train local and regional
professionals to build large scale projects like ours and to
get the job done right.
Once completed, Lithium Americas will employ roughly 350
full-time professionals at our Thacker Pass facility. These
jobs will operate sophisticated processing and chemical
manufacturing plants and the workers we need are not readily
available. I'll add that the average wage with benefits is
$100,000 a year.
To meet this need, we have embarked on aggressive efforts
working with the University of Nevada, Great Basin College in
Nevada, the State of Nevada, and others to implement the
training we need so our future workforce is ready to go once
Thacker Pass is complete in 2027.
Lithium Americas is committed to doing this project right.
This includes sound environmental stewardship, ensuring the
benefits of our project accrue to local communities, including
the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, and providing
family supporting careers in this exciting and emerging battery
industry.
Because of the significance of our project and being an
industry leader from the start, Lithium Americas has been
committed to engaging with local community and Tribal members.
This active dialog has allowed Lithium Americas to be
transparent about the project's details and its impacts.
Lithium Americas has participated in numerous open houses,
community meetings, one-on-one dialogs; provided numerous
tours; and emphasized employment opportunities and other ways
the project could benefit local and Tribal members.
Over the past several years, many throughout Humboldt
County have expressed interest in working onsite and
participated in job skills training, coordinated, or provided
by our company as well.
Numerous members of the tribe have emphasized that this
project allows members to stay home or return home because of
the jobs we will provide.
Lithium Americas and the Fort McDermitt Tribe have a formal
Community Benefits Agreement founded on years of active
engagement. It focuses on ensuring the tribe can benefit from
the job creation at Thacker Pass, by committing to additional
job training and employment opportunities for tribal members,
as well as providing infrastructure development and support for
cultural education and preservation.
Lithium Americas has agreed to build a $5 million community
center for the tribe that includes a preschool and daycare so
parents will be able to take advantage of the jobs we'll create
while knowing their kids are safe and secure.
Larina Bell, Fort McDermitt's Tribal Chairwoman commented
on the announcement of the Department of Energy loan that will
help finance construction of the project, that ``Thacker Pass
will provide important economic and employment opportunities
for members of our Tribe.''
In the nearby town of Orovada, Lithium Americas is
committed to building a new K-8 public school. A leading
motivator for this community investment is to ensure prosperity
at Thacker Pass benefits many generations of locals starting in
elementary school and potentially continuing through lifetime
quality careers in the area.
Lithium Americas is committed to meeting the focus of this
Subcommittee by growing a skilled workforce to fill family
supporting careers in jobs that benefit the Nation's security,
bolster the state and local economies, and fulfill a rapidly
growing demand to electrify our economy.
Thank you for the opportunity to be with today, and I look
forward to your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Evans follows.]
prepared statement of jon evans
Chairman Hickenlooper, Ranking Member Braun, and Members of the
Subcommittee, my name is Jon Evans, and I'm the President and CEO of
Lithium Americas Corporation (LAC). I greatly appreciate your focus on
workforce development for critical minerals development. Finding the
skilled workforce my project and industry needs to thrive is a
significant challenge, and I commend you for working to address this
important issue.
Lithium Americas is building a major lithium mine and processing
facility in Northern Nevada called the Thacker Pass Project. We have
been working on Thacker Pass for more than a decade and are pleased to
be fully permitted and funded to move forward with this essential
project. Once in operation in 2027, we will produce enough lithium
carbonate for approximately 800,000 electric vehicle batteries per
year. That's a marked improvement on the U.S.'s ability to provide the
materials we need. To start, the project's offtake will be sold to
General Motors. This will profoundly assist with their transition to
EVs.
Workforce development is a challenge we're meeting head-on. Lithium
Americas will utilize as many as 2,000 skilled workers to build Thacker
Pass. To ensure we get the workers we need in a remote area of Nevada,
we entered into a Project Labor Agreement with the North Americas
Building Trade Unions. NABTU knows how to recruit local and regional
professionals to build large-scale projects like ours and to get the
job done right.
Once completed, Lithium Americas will employ roughly 350 full-time
professionals at our Thacker Pass facility. These jobs will operate
sophisticated processing and chemical manufacturing plants, and the
workers we will need are not readily available. To meet this need, we
have embarked on aggressive efforts working with the University of
Nevada, Great Basin College in Nevada, the State of Nevada and more to
implement the training we need so our future workforce is ready to go
once Thacker Pass construction is completed in 2027.
Lithium Americas is committed to doing this project right. That
includes sound environmental stewardship, ensuring the benefits of our
project accrue to local communities including the Fort McDermitt Paiute
and Shoshone Tribe, and providing family supporting careers in this
exciting and emerging battery industry.
Because of the significance of our project and being an industry
leader from the start, Lithium Americas has been committed to engaging
with local community and Tribal members. This active dialog has allowed
Lithium Americas to be transparent about the Project's details and its
impacts. Lithium Americas has participated in numerous open houses,
community meetings, one-on-one dialogs; provided numerous tours; and
emphasized employment opportunities and other ways the Project could
benefit local and Tribal members.
Over the past several years, many throughout Humboldt County have
expressed interest in working onsite and participated in job skills
training coordinated or provided by LAC. Numerous members of the Tribe
have emphasized that this Project allows members to stay home or return
home because of the good jobs we will provide.
Lithium Americas and the Fort McDermitt Tribe have a formal
Community Benefits Agreement founded on years of active engagement. It
focuses on ensuring the Tribe can benefit from job creation at Thacker
Pass by committing to additional job training and employment
opportunities for tribal members, as well as providing infrastructure
development and support for cultural education and preservation.
Lithium Americas has also agreed to build a $5 million community center
for the Tribe that includes a preschool and daycare so parents are able
to take advantage of the jobs we'll create while knowing their kids are
safe and secure.
Larina Bell, Fort McDermitt's Tribal Chairwoman, commented on the
announcement of the Department of Energy loan that will help finance
construction of the Project that, ``Thacker Pass will provide important
economic and employment opportunities for members of our Tribe.''
In the nearby town of Orovada, Lithium Americas has committed to
building a new K-8 public school. A leading motivator for this
community investment is to ensure prosperity at Thacker Pass benefits
many generations of locals starting in elementary school and
potentially continuing through lifetime, quality careers.
Lithium Americas is committed to meeting the focus of this
Subcommittee by growing a skilled workforce to fill family supporting
careers in jobs that benefit the Nation's security, bolster the state
and local economies, and fulfill a rapidly growing demand to electrify
our economy.
Thank you for the opportunity to be with you today. I look forward
to your questions.
______
Senator Hickenlooper. Thank you, Mr. Evans.
Now, Mr. Zisch. Mr. Zisch serves as the Head of The Mining
Engineering Department at the Colorado School of Mines. He also
has over 40 years of experience in the mining industry,
including international mining, mining plant operation, and
numerous corporate assignments with various mining companies.
Mr. Zisch.
STATEMENT OF BILL ZISCH, J. STEVEN WHISLER HEAD OF MINING
ENGINEERING, COLORADO SCHOOL OF MINES, GOLDEN, CO
Mr. Zisch. Chairman Hickenlooper, Ranking Member Braun, and
distinguished Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the
opportunity to testify today on the growing importance of our
critical minerals workforce.
With over 40 years of experience in the global mining
industry, I have seen firsthand the sector's significant
contributions to the economy, local communities and living
standards. Critical minerals are essential to produce
medicines, semiconductors, defense systems, clean energy and
more.
I have also seen examples of the lasting damage mining can
have on communities and ecosystems. These conflicting realities
complicate perceptions of an industry that is vital to our
economy, energy future, and national security.
I know that when it comes to critical minerals in the
modern world, the most important critical resource is our
people, skilled professionals, and stewards of natural
resources, trained to solve complex engineering and social
challenges. For this reason, I returned to mining education and
now serve as the head of the Mining Engineering Department at
Colorado School of Mines, the world's top ranked mineral and
mining engineering school. Our interdisciplinary education and
research cover the full mineral life cycle from exploration to
reclamation.
As a global demand for critical minerals has surged, there
is growing recognition that these goals will require more
minerals and more mining. At the same time, it is estimated
that half of the U.S. mining workforce, about 220,000 people
will retire by the end of the decade and the talent pipeline is
not sufficient to meet demand.
Declining enrollments are a result of a combination of
factors, including limited knowledge or experience with the
industry, the globalization of mining operations and industry
image that associates mining with environmental concerns as
well as a perception of an unsafe workplace.
In response, the university is promoting a new vision for
the future of mining and responds to the scientific, social,
and environmental challenges facing the sector and aligns with
the student's passion for environmental stewardship. It also
integrates innovation, advanced technologies, and sustainable
practices to minimize environmental impact, optimize resource
utilization, and increase productivity.
We must demonstrate that careers in the minerals industry
are rewarding and impactful. There are signs of an enrollment
rebound at Colorado School of Mines. In fall 2023,
undergraduate mining engineering enrollment increased by 22
percent from the prior year with just over 100 students
enrolled in the mining engineering program.
With climate change at the forefront of many students'
concerns, we work to inform students of the essential link
between mining, minerals, responsible resource management, and
sustainable energy, which appeals to their sense of purpose and
drive to solve the world's most complex problems.
Today, mines curriculum extends beyond geology and mine
operations, and includes classes in waste, water, and tailings
management and social and community engagement. Our mining
department faculty also includes anthropologists, highlighting
the need for technical and social awareness to understand
projects in an environmental and societal context.
Mines vision for future of mining also recognizes the
transformational role of research and innovation. Advanced
technologies, robotics, AI drilling innovations, advanced
separations, tailings management, recycling, are all essential
for an economically viable interest industry with a net
positive impact for stakeholders.
At its core, Mines research is rooted in partnerships with
industry, national labs, academia, and government. Research is
critical to address the most pressing mineral challenges and to
the development and retention of mining and mineral educators
that support and sustain mining engineering programs. Mining
schools play an important role in growing our Nation's critical
mineral workforce through both education and research.
Colorado School of Mines is committed to a new vision for
mining in the future and working with industry, academia,
communities, and government, to reestablish our mineral
workforce as a critical element of the U.S. economic energy and
security future. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Zisch follows.]
prepared statement of bill zisch
Chairman Hickenlooper, Ranking Member Braun and distinguished
Members of the Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify
today on the growing importance of our critical minerals workforce.
With over 40 years of experience in the global mining industry, I
have seen firsthand the value the minerals industry brings to the
economy, local communities and living standards. Critical minerals are
the building blocks of medicines, semi-conductors, defense systems,
clean energy and more.
I have also seen examples of the damage mining can have on
communities and ecosystems in the U.S. and abroad, if not done properly
or responsibly. This includes lasting environmental damage,
unacceptable labor practices and legacy waste sites which are difficult
to repair or remediate. These competing realities complicate
perceptions of a mining industry that is vital to our economy, energy
future and national security.
My experience has taught me that when it comes to minerals and
their role in our modern world, our most critical resource is our
people--skilled professionals equipped to responsibly manage our
earth's resources and solve complex engineering and social challenges.
It is for this reason that I returned from semi-retirement to
mining education--first as a professor of practice. Today, I serve as
the Head of the Mining Engineering Department at Colorado School of
Mines (Mines), home to the top ranked mineral and mining engineering
program in the world. \1\ Our world-class faculty support
interdisciplinary education and research covering all aspects of the
mining and mineral life cycle--from exploration, extraction and
processing to recycling, mine closure and reclamation, as well as water
management, community engagement, occupational health and safety,
mineral economics and supply chains. Our broad scope of study also
includes space mining and deep underground mining and construction.
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\1\ QS Top Universities. (2024). University subject rankings:
Mineral & mining engineering. https://www.topuniversities.com/
university-subject-rankings/mineral-mining-engineering.
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Mining and Minerals Workforce Challenges
As global demand for critical minerals has surged, largely in
response to energy goals, there is a growing recognition that achieving
these goals will consume more minerals and require more mining.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that to meet demand
for clean energy technologies by 2040, the world will need 42 times as
much lithium compared to 2020--25 times more graphite, 21 times more
cobalt and 19 times more nickel. \2\ According to Benchmark Mineral
Intelligence, at least 284 new mines will need to be built globally to
meet electric vehicle demand by 2035. \3\ The challenge is compounded
both by the scarcity of economically viable deposits and the length of
time required to characterize, permit and develop a new mine.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ International Energy Agency. (2021). The role of critical
minerals in clean energy transitions: Executive summary. https://
www.iea.org/reports/the-role-of-critical-minerals-in-clean-energy-
transitions/executive-summary.
\3\ Hodgson, C. (2023, May 1). More than 300 new mines required to
meet battery demand by 2035. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. https://
source.benchmarkminerals.com/article/more-than-300-new-mines-required-
to-meet-battery-demand-by-2035.
It is well documented that for most critical minerals, the U.S. is
heavily reliant on foreign sources for its consumption requirements
\4\--many of which are mined and processed in adversarial nations with
low or unenforced environmental, labor and human rights standards.
While the U.S. was once the global leader in mineral development, we
have ceded that leadership position. Nonetheless, there are important
and impactful new mineral developments being advanced throughout the
country, including for lithium, copper, manganese, nickel and cobalt.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ U.S. Geological Survey. (2023). Mineral commodity summaries
2023 (Report No. 2023-3000). U.S. Department of the Interior. https://
pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2023/mcs2023.pdf.
At the same time, it is estimated that half of the U.S. Mining
workforce, about 220,000 people, will retire by the end of the decade,
and the talent pipeline is not sufficient to replace experienced
professionals in mining engineering or other related disciplines. \5\
The minerals and mining workforce includes a broad range of skilled
professionals including technicians, engineers and scientists trained
in geology, hydrology, metallurgy, chemistry, community engagement and
social science, business and economics, data science, health and
safety, mine closure and reclamation and more.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration. (n.d.).
Workforce trends in the U.S. mining industry. https://www.smenet.org/
What-We-Do/Technical-Briefings/Workforce-Trends-in-the-U.S.-Mining-
Industry.
Today, there are 14 mining engineering programs in the U.S.--down
from 25 in 1982. Last year, these mining schools collectively enrolled
590 undergraduate students, graduating just 162 students for an
industry demand of 400-600 new mining engineers each year. \6\ In
comparison, China's 45 mining engineering programs currently enroll
about 12,000 students and graduate approximately 3,000 a year--about 16
times the number of graduates in the United States. \7\
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\6\ Society of Mining Professors and Society for Mining,
Metallurgy and Exploration, 2021; data collected by Vlad Kecojevic.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024.
Building Capacity for the U.S. Mineral Resources Workforce: Proceedings
of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://
doi.org/10.17226/27733.
\7\ National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.
(2024). Building Capacity for the U.S. Mineral Resources Workforce:
Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies
Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27733.
Declining enrollments are the result of a combination of factors,
including limited knowledge or experience with the industry, the
globalization of mining operations, an industry image that associates
mining with adverse environmental impacts, as well as a perception of
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
an unsafe workplace.
It is imperative that we--industry, academia and society--
thoughtfully address these concerns and demonstrate that careers in
mining engineering are rewarding, technology-driven and impactful.
Absent a meaningful shift in perceptions, the best and brightest
students and leaders will pursue opportunities in other competitive
fields.
A New Vision for the Future of Mining
In response to these challenges, Mines is advancing a compelling
new vision for the future of mining that aligns with students' passion
for environmental stewardship. This vision also integrates advanced
technologies and sustainable mining practices to increase productivity,
minimize environmental impact, improve safety and optimize resource
utilization.
While undergraduate enrollment in Mining Engineering at Mines, like
other mining schools, has experienced a decline in enrollment, there
are signs of a rebound. In Fall of 2023, Mines' undergraduate Mining
Engineering enrollment increased by 22 percent from the prior year,
with just over 100 students enrolled in the Mining Engineering program.
This rebound is attributed, in part, to a focus on first and
second-year students who are undecided or not yet strongly committed to
their major. With climate change at the forefront of many of our
students' concerns, informing students of the world's essential
critical mineral applications and the need for innovative leadership
appeals to their inherent sense of purpose and desire to solve the most
complex challenges. Also, promoting strong stewardship of natural
resources to create sustainable development and prosperity for
communities, tribes, governments and other stakeholders speaks to
students' altruistic desire to positively impact the world. Thus, we
teach the essential link between mining, minerals, responsible resource
management, sustainable energy, and community and societal benefits.
Informed by regular input and support from industry partners, the
Mining Engineering curriculum extends far beyond the basic foundations
of geology and mine operations. Students take classes in waste, water
and tailings management and social and community engagement. Our Mining
Department faculty also includes an anthropologist, highlighting the
need for both technical and social awareness to understand projects
within the context of the environment, communities and society.
Furthermore, our industry partners consistently share that today's
mining operations require talent from various disciplines, including
expertise in mechanical, electrical, civil, environmental, chemical,
petroleum, and humanitarian engineering--and need to extend to
economics, computer science, data science, risk management, statistics
and math. We believe promoting a Minor in Mining Engineering to
students in these disciplines can also help draw non-mining engineers
to the sector.
As a result, Mines graduates are highly sought after by industry,
academia and government, serving in roles that range from mine
planning, extraction and processing, mine remediation and reclamation,
community engagement, business and finance, public policy and
regulatory compliance.
Mines is also strengthening diverse pathways into engineering
careers by actively working with Colorado's community colleges to
expand opportunity and access to all Mines engineering degrees,
including Mining Engineering. Mines Academy is a program that puts
community college students on a direct pathway to a bachelor's degree
from Mines after completing a 2-year Associate of Engineering Science
degree at a participating community college, which includes minority-
serving institutions. \8\
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\8\ Colorado School of Mines. (n.d.). Mines Academy. https://
www.mines.edu/undergraduate-admissions/mines-academy/.
Beyond aligning students' interests with the world's need for
critical minerals, Mines also engages in more traditional outreach
programs such as career information workshops, highlighting
opportunities that include readily available scholarships and
internships and near 100 percent graduate job placements in well
compensated positions that offer unique lifestyle opportunities.
Mining and Minerals Innovation
Mines' vision for the future of mining also recognizes the
transformational role that research and innovation can and must have on
the future of mining. Research--and strong research funding--is
critical to inspire the most talented minds to tackle the most pressing
mining-related challenges. It is also necessary to recruit and retain
the next generation of mining and mineral faculty and educators that
support and sustain mining engineering programs.
The mining industry faces significant changes due to evolving
social and environmental conditions, technological advancements,
development costs, market fluctuations and the need for sustainable
mining practices. For example, future mines will likely need to be
self-sufficient in power and water to avoid competing with local
communities, relying on renewable energy systems to support
decarbonization efforts.
Advanced technologies and techniques--robotics and artificial
Intelligence (AI), drilling innovations, brines extraction, advanced
separations, coproduction processes, digital subsurface applications,
tailings management, recycling and more--will be critical to create an
economically viable industry that generates net positive impact for
stakeholders.
Specific advances expected to evolve from applied technological
innovation include mine design algorithms that will incorporate social
license considerations. Advanced analytics, machine learning and AI
will enhance operations by reducing costs and improving dispatch
systems, ore sorting, recycling, ore control, maintenance and downtime.
Safety advancements will focus on operator fatigue, collision avoidance
and vehicle intervention systems. Autonomous equipment like trucks,
drills, loaders and dozers will improve safety and efficiency, while
drones and robots will handle tasks traditionally performed by humans.
The research community, including the Colorado School of Mines, is
actively engaged in applied research of semiconductors, clean energy,
and advanced technologies--all of which require critical materials.
These strategic investments, supported by the CHIPS and Science Act,
the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, have
focused on downstream processing and battery manufacturing, but have
not included investments in next generation mining innovation and
research and development.
Since the dissolution of the Bureau of Mines in 1996, largely for
budget reduction purposes, there has been no Federal program dedicated
to improving mining technology and processes for sourcing critical
minerals more efficiently and responsibly at home or abroad.
Investments in research not only address the mining industry's most
pressing economic, environmental and sustainability challenges, they
also support a strong academic community, which is essential for
developing a skilled workforce.
Research Centers and Partnerships
Central to Mines' vision for the future of mining is partnerships
with industry, national labs, academia, government and communities, and
a commitment to listen, innovate and co-create advanced mining
technologies and processes.
More broadly, mining innovation is intended to support community
engagement and regulatory acceptance, develop a skilled workforce and
inform mining and mineral policies that ensure a responsible,
sustainable, and economically viable domestic mining industry.
Mines serves as the academic lead of the Department of Energy's
Critical Material Innovation Hub (CMI), which carries out scientific
and engineering research to facilitate more diverse primary supply
chains, more efficient manufacturing, reuse and recycling, as well as
the development of new materials. In addition, the Center for Resource,
Recovery and Recycling (CR3), affiliated with Mines' Kroll Institute
for Extractive Metallurgy both have direct application in the recovery
of critical minerals through primary processing or secondary and
recycling processes. Mines' Tailings Center is an industry-university
consortium focused on applied and basic research in tailings and mine
waste management, as is the NSF-supported Center for Advanced Science
and Exploration to Remediation of Mining (CASERM), a partnership with
our colleagues at Virginia Tech.
Additionally, with the support of the Bipartisan Infrastructure
Law, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is constructing the new USGS-
Mines Energy and Minerals Research Facility on the Mines campus. The
new facility will house the USGS Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry
Science Center, and Central Energy Resources Science Center. \9\ More
importantly the partnership will strengthen collaboration between USGS
scientists and Mines faculty and students to advance research on topics
including critical mineral origins, supply chains and markets, as well
as educate the next-generation workforce that will support the critical
materials sector.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ U.S. Geological Survey. ``Energy and Minerals Research.'' U.S.
Department of the Interior, https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/
bipartisan-infrastructure-law-investments/science/energy-and-minerals-
research. Accessed 7 June 2024.
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Conclusion
The future of mining vision begins with the workforce--and will
require active engagement from industry, academia, communities, and
government. This effort will take time, resources, and most importantly
a coordinated strategy. In that regard, Mines supports legislative
efforts, like the bipartisan Mining Schools Act (S. 912), which would
establish a grant program for mining schools to recruit students and
support programs in relevant mining and mineral fields.
A strong minerals workforce will also require a new social
relationship with the earth's resources, supported by industry,
academia (P-20), and government--a relationship that draws direct
connections between the mineral workforce and the economy, energy
future, environmental protection and national security.
Mining schools play a crucial role in growing our Nation's critical
mineral capabilities through both education and research. The
opportunity before us is to engage and inspire the next generation of
mining and mineral leaders with a passion for impactful careers in an
industry innovating to support a sustainable environment.
Colorado School of Mines is committed to this vision and working
with all stakeholders to reestablish our mineral workforce as a
critical element of our economic, energy and security future.
Thank you.
______
Senator Hickenlooper. Thank you so much. Thanks to each of
you for being here. It really is much appreciated. I'll ask
some questions then I'll turn it over to Senator Braun and ask
questions. Then I'll probably ask more questions because I'm
just naturally being a geologist, naturally curious.
Let me start with Mr. Evans, let's lay a foundation for
today's discussion. This is a big deal, right? Making sure we
have the workforce we need is of crucial importance and making
sure that we don't have an ongoing reliance on foreign
adversaries. What types of jobs that your company needs now,
let's say needs now or will need in the future. How do salaries
in these jobs compare with other jobs that you're competing
with in the State of Nevada?
Mr. Evans. Thank you, Senator. Our company requires skilled
trades to operate the plant. So, welders, electricians,
instrumentation technicians from an hourly standpoint. From a
professional standpoint, it's a myriad. We have everything from
metallurgists, chemical engineers, mechanical engineers, mining
engineers, so highly technical jobs that come out of the STEM
field.
The salaries that we offer in this field are quite
competitive. They have to be, we're competing against other
industries that are attracting STEM talent away. So, we have to
pay well above average to get folks. I guess the converse to
that is that we've had a lot of success being able to attract
people, and I think you've heard it across sort of the theme
here. We need to rebrand.
I'm one of the oldest folks in the company and at 55, if
you come to our laboratory and technical center in Reno,
Nevada, or even out to Winnemucca, you're going to see some
gray-haired folks there, which is great, because they have the
experience to help train the younger folks.
But by and large, our workforce is quite youthful and quite
young. And they want to come into this field, they don't view
it as mining necessarily or minerals extraction, but they see
it as a burgeoning career area around the economies changing
into a more green economy or green energy.
I think you and I spoke in the past. My daughter's a great
example of that. She turned a job down with Goldman Sachs. She
works at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden,
Colorado. She wanted to go into a field that's growing, that's
new and have a front row seat to where our economy's going over
the next 20 or 30 years.
A lot of our employees that come either as interns or that
we're working closely with the University of Nevada or Reno, or
even more importantly in closer term, Great Basin College,
which is in Winnemucca, Nevada, are all thinking the same
thing.
Senator Braun, you had mentioned, we actually go and talk
to kids in high school. We have a constant open house every
week, members of the public, we have school kids coming in and
so forth.
That's the same out in Winnemucca, Nevada, where we're
actually outreaching kids in high school, bringing them through
a Great Basin College. They've actually worked to develop
programs that are specialized around instrumentation, around
electricians, which are two of the hardest to find. And they've
already graduated two or three classes and they're able to do
that now in an associate's degree program that's only a year
versus 2 years.
It's possible, but it's tough. And the other thing I'll add
too is that, rural economy it's very difficult too. It's much
easier to get folks in Reno, Humboldt County for the East Coast
folks is half the State of Connecticut has 16,000 people in it.
So, it's very rural and typically when kids leave and they go
to the State University they don't come back. So, it's grabbing
kids in high school so they don't leave, but it's also trying
to get people to come back to the area as well.
Senator Hickenlooper. Right, engaging them in different
ways. Taking that thread then, Dr. Arnold, can you talk about
partnerships that you might have with community colleges or
apprenticeships and programs with businesses as well, and what
challenges do you expect as you try and scale up those programs
or see them being implemented in other places?
Dr. Arnold. As far as the different programs that we have
dispersed away from, we'll say the flagship at University Park,
Penn State has commonwealth campuses around the state. And each
of those has 2-year associate degree programs in things like
electromechanical engineering and those types of programs.
While our mining engineering program doesn't directly link
with those, those are programs that Penn State has. We need to
do a better job of actually going out into the community
colleges and into some of the trade schools to actually address
the need for mining programs, the need for folks to actually
become better equipped to serve in mining positions, just to
understand the different environment that they're going into.
The second part of your question was interacting with
businesses. We have many numbers of folks contacting us in the
spring, in the summer, to come onto campus in the fall, and to
talk to our mining students directly. They interview them often
the next day, they tell them about their company one evening,
they interview them for summer internships or full-time
positions for the next summer. So, by the time the end of the
fall semester rolls around we have everyone placed. Some of
them will actually change their mind.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Zisch. Well, we all know kids.
Dr. Arnold. They do that, but so the jobs are there. But we
need more students to fill them. Got it. But on the critical
mineral----
Senator Hickenlooper. Let me switch over to Mr. Zisch,
we'll come back around. Over to you Mr. Zisch.
Dr. Arnold. Absolutely.
Mr. Zisch. Thank you, Senator. The Colorado School Mines
also has programs where we have relationships with particularly
three community colleges, which provide opportunities for
students to have then an entrance into School of Mines.
Those are working relationships that we have, provides an
opportunity for students to get their kind of feet on the
ground. It's a lower cost option for them as well.
The other thing that we use a lot of those programs for, is
for targeting underrepresented students coming into mines. It's
a great avenue for us to reach out to them and have them come
through, what is a non-traditional approach sometimes, that's
been very effective on our underrepresented opportunities.
Senator Hickenlooper. Great, thank you. I'm going to step
back, but I'm not through. Gracelin, I will be back to each of
you actually. So, I'm going to turn it over to my co-chair,
Senator Braun.
Senator Braun. It's because you're a geologist, right? You,
you've got several rounds, so.
Senator Hickenlooper. Exactly.
Senator Braun. I'm an entrepreneur, business owner, and
workforce has been a challenge in all areas, I mentioned that
earlier. Depressing when you hear, did you say 12,000 was the
number from China?
Dr Arnold. Yes, students enrolled.
Senator Braun. We were like, how many was that again?
Dr Arnold. 162.
Senator Braun. I mean, that is unbelievable. And then I
think someone else mentioned, it might have been you, Dr.
Baskaran, about the stigma associated with sadly farming was in
there too. And that's the hardest small business that God ever
created. And of course, that has gotten more intensive with
capital and equipment and less labor intensive. That's the only
way we keep up there.
Then I think back, because I always like to get to the root
of a problem. When coal was our primary mineral that we were
mining and using to generate electricity, I don't seem to
remember issues getting people into the field. Our neighboring
county was the highest income county per capita in our State of
Indiana, which is the biggest manufacturing state per capita
now. And that's almost all gone. So, how much of the skills you
need for mining in general, would've been because we had a
vibrant coal industry back many years ago?
Does that have anything to do with why we don't have as
many kids interested in it? Because they seem to be interested
then because they were good paying jobs. Whoever feels
comfortable answering that, I'd like to get your opinion.
Dr. Baskaran. I'm happy to go for it. I think globally we
see a phenomenon where young people, urbanization. I mean,
there's just been a changing phenomenon where people are moving
to cities. So, there was once a time, I think at the height of
the coal boom in the United States, but mining more broadly,
where you kind of use place-based, right? You stay where you
grew up and where there was that mining industry, you stayed
there.
But now we're just seeing a global trend where people are
moving to cities. There are more attractive fields that have
emerged in the last few decades in tech, remote work, all of
these things. And these are really kind of shifting.
To the second part now, that's different then, is mining
now requires a lot more STEM skills than it used to. Because we
used to use a rock blaster, like a person would go place the
blast and blast it. Now it's done by an engineer in a different
space. So, the type of skills that's attracting is different,
and that's also going to require more emphasis on STEM than it
did before.
Senator Braun. It wasn't our policy that initiated the fact
that we've pretty well said we don't want to use coal anymore?
And I look at China where they're building all the green energy
stuff and they're fueling it with fire or coal fired plants,
building you hear, one a week, in terms of electric generation
fueled by coal, India as well.
How much of that, and now that our policy has changed and
you need the skills that are critical that you used to get,
wasn't coal mining a large percentage of our total mining that
we used to do in the U.S.? It seems like it had to be. Anybody
want to comment on that?
Dr. Arnold. Sure. I can take that question. Overall, we
mine a lot of material and actually iron ore is the biggest
metallic mineral that we mine, but we actually mine more
aggregates than anything else. There's this one----
Senator Braun. Are they hurting for workforce too?
Dr. Arnold. Oh, everybody is.
Senator Braun. Something has occurred to where anything
that you're extracting out of the ground, we just have been
lagging on it. So, it's kind of across the board.
Dr. Arnold. It's across the board. It absolutely is.
Senator Braun. Then that sounds like it's mostly going back
to how we've maybe stigmatized, the reason farming it's easy to
explain. It's gotten to where you've been able to substitute
capital and equipment for labor, and we produce more here.
Here, we've not been able to do that, and then it may get to be
the nature of the job.
I'm guessing that issue's not the same in other countries.
So, looks like until we get to the bottom of that we're going
to have a lot of trouble regardless of what we're trying to
extract.
Mr. Evans. It's very hard to open mines in the U.S.,
Senator. The ones that we had have declined. Opening a new one
takes a long time. It's hard to finance, and then the workforce
is aged and you're left with a lot less people than you had
before.
Senator Braun. Then one final question before I give it
back. How much has government policy been a factor in making it
more or less difficult?
Mr. Evans. Sir. I'll answer that.
Senator Braun. You are here with the government, so.
Mr. Evans. I think that the permitting process and the NEPA
process is very rigorous and it needs to be. We are going
through the process ourselves. The one area that I would look
at for permit reform is judicial. In terms of the length of the
amount of appeals, it took us four and a half years from start
to finish to go through the whole process, and that's
supposedly short.
We're both business folks, it's hard to get people to lend
you money or give you money when they don't know when they're
going to get a return on their investment. There are other
mines in this country that have been locked in litigation for
15 or 20 years. Because new cases are brought after other ones
are dismissed.
I think that's a key portion of at least the government
portion around permitting reform, which it's more than just
mines, as we know, it could be transmission lines; it could be
everything. It's something we need to address for
infrastructure in general in this country.
Senator Braun. Thank you.
Senator Hickenlooper. Senator Casey, the Senior Senator
from Pennsylvania.
Senator Casey. Mr. Chairman, thanks very much. I want to
thank both you and Senator Braun for this opportunity to
examine these issues. I'm going to thank each of our witnesses
for being here. This is a busy hearing day, so everyone's in
and out and moving around. So, I'm sorry I missed your
presentations.
Dr. Arnold, I wanted to direct my main question to you. I
don't think I have to explain to you or many in Pennsylvania
what life was like a while back when we had a lot of
communities that were suffering from the ravages of coal
mining. When I grew up in Scranton and still live there, the
Lackawanna River was not what it is today. We were told to
avoid it, don't go near it, it's dirty. Sometimes would turn
some form of orange and now it's a place where people come from
far and wide to fish there. So, it's been completely turned
around.
But we know of the devastation of abandoned or the
devastation resulting in abandoned mine lands and all that came
with it. We also know that in our state, we have state
constitutional provision, which article 1, section 27 of the
Constitution mandates that the people have a right to clean
air, pure water, and the preservation of the natural scenic,
historic, and aesthetic values of the environment. It talks
about each of us being trustees of the natural resources of the
state.
Eventually the state took that seriously, starting about a
little more than 50 years ago, more like 60 years ago now, and
started to deal with this abandoned mine land problem in
cleaning up the environment. We've got today, more than 40
counties that are of our 67 that are somehow impacted by
abandoned mine lands.
It's been devastating for the environment, the land, the
community, the economic development that can occur when that is
not dealt with. I've worked on these issues a good while here
and had some success and Senator Braun and I work together to
pass the Stream Act that allows states to use a portion of
their abandoned mine land money for acid mine drainage cleanup.
And that was a good moment when we did that because we had to
fix a little defect in the infrastructure bill.
Leaders like Penn State and the National Energy Technology
Lab in Pennsylvania are taking environmental remediation one
step further. And they're pioneering ways to extract rare earth
elements from acid mine drainage. I even visited Penn State and
saw a demonstration.
That's a long lead up into maybe the broad question, what
would you hope we could do here by way of new policy? But
generally, what would you believe is necessary to leverage what
is a great energy workforce in our state, to take advantage of
this opportunity that we have to actually take extract from in
those communities, those rare earth elements?
Dr. Arnold. Well, Senator, you absolutely hit it on the
head with what we're doing as far as recovering rare earth
elements and other critical minerals from acid mine drainage in
the project that we're doing right now.
To leverage our energy workforce, I think it's actually
going to be difficult because our energy workforce is actually
aging. They're the 220,000 that are going to retire. And how do
we bring new people into the pipeline? And that's critical.
We actually hide our mines. We've got to the point where
you drive down the road and you don't know that there's a mine
behind the hill. Now there're still in eastern Pennsylvania,
there are still combustors, and we still need to address those,
and we are.
Some of those fluidized bed combustor plants are doing a
job of recovering that, creating energy at the same time, and
then putting that material back better. But we need to figure
out how to get more people into that workforce as well.
We can do everything we can on the automation side, and we
are introducing a lot of automation and control, a lot of
virtual types of technologies. But, how can we actually get
younger people to do that, to go into those careers? It's going
to be a combination of curriculum for K-12, letting them know
that all of these elements that we're trying to go after are
critical to high tech jobs. And so that message isn't getting
out there.
I think it's a curriculum thing. I think it's also--and not
necessarily just to go into mining engineering programs or
mineral processing programs. It's to go into manufacturing,
it's to go into energy. It's just at this point it's difficult
to get them to think that those jobs are actually environmental
jobs.
Senator Casey. Well, you've given us a lot to think about
and to strategize about. But thanks very much. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
Senator Hickenlooper. Indeed. Thank you. Dr. Baskaran, it's
estimated that the critical minerals workforce will need to
double if we're going to meet our energy goals, some people say
even higher than that. I think many of our international
partners have been working for a pretty good while building up
their workforce.
What challenges have other countries faced in recruiting
and retaining a skilled, robust workforce that can do what
needs to be done? And what are some of the best practices
you've seen at work in these other countries to address some of
the challenges we've all been talking about?
Dr. Baskaran. Thank you, Senator. I always think about
Australia, because it was probably about 15 or 20 years ago
that Australia decided that they were going to be a mineral
center of excellence. And when you look at Australia's economy,
it's about 15 percent of GDP is mining because you have your
inputs, your machinery, your production, your processing.
Our DOD DPA Title III grants actually go to Australian
companies. But what they also did is they really aimed to build
a robust workforce. So, if you look at a lot of mining
graduates abroad, they're Australian. And I think a lot of that
again is that prioritization of a long-term strategy that in
many ways the U.S. has lacked to developing that workforce.
If I were to think about two things that I think about that
we need to realize though, with an Australian model of
retention is, people don't live at the mines, they fly you in
and they fly you out, right? And I think that's a big change
over time, is mines are not, you and I both know, mines are
often not an exciting place, right? They're not the easiest
places to attract it.
Australia's used other mechanisms, in public health, to get
doctors into places where there's Aboriginal health problems.
They also have to use similar mechanisms. We need to
acknowledge that mines are in hard places, and we need to
develop a system where there's two things.
First, outreach is really important. We've said a lot here,
like, young people don't know mining as a career. It's not an
industry that we think about. So, first is going in and doing
the outreach.
Second is financially incentivizing it, not just from--
between the age of 17 and 22, your brain looks vastly
different. When you're 22 you're thinking about how much money
you need to make to pay your rent. When you're 17, you're not
thinking about that. So, it's actually going in and
scholarships, bursaries, co-ops, internships, paid experience,
becomes super valuable.
Then I think the other thing is like we think a lot when we
think about banking, like our friends who ended up in
investment banking. They finished college and they went and got
their signing bonus. This information needs to be pulled
forward so that we can do that.
Then the last thing I think is cross pollination. So, when
I look at Australia, when I look at Canada, I looked at the top
12, sorry, Penn State was 13, so it's not in my numbers,
apologies. But when I looked at the top 12 mining engineering
programs, school of mind is No. 1. And then we have four
Canadian, four Australian, couple British, Saudi, right? Is
that actually we need to cross pollinate knowledge better so
that people see globally, like mining is big.
I mean, I've been very fortunate to have an extremely
international career. I spent all my twenties abroad, and that
was mining, right? But that's not something I would've thought
of when I was 17 or 18 years old. So, bringing that exposure to
the fact that mining is not living in Rural West Virginia
anymore is really important to changing that narrative.
I think Australia's gotten it right. They too are having an
aging workforce. Canada has an aging workforce. This is a
global dilemma. However, what we are seeing is if you put that
architecture and plumbing into place, it's a gift that keeps on
giving.
Senator Hickenlooper. I appreciate that. And I would argue
that I think many times mines are the most beautiful places.
And some of Wallace Stegner's novels, if you've ever read Angle
of Repose or even Crossing to Safety, they get into that a
little bit further.
Each of you in your distinct ways are leading important
efforts to move this, the critical minerals workforce, forward.
Can maybe each of you speak briefly about the policies that you
think Congress should support to help accelerate this
development of the workforce? Why don't we start with you, Mr.
Zisch. We'll go along this way.
Mr. Zisch. Yes. Thank you, Senator. I think certainly that
some of the policies that should be out there need to get at
and talk to this. Actually, Senator Braun, talked about the
stigmatism and somehow incorporating these mines as part of the
solution and part of the contribution to solving our energy
issues.
I would think that policies that can help to deal with that
stigmatism and the industry perspective would be very helpful.
I would also think that when, from a standpoint of anything we
can do to encourage the scholarships, internships, et cetera
would be very helpful.
Senator Hickenlooper. Good point.
Mr. Evans.
Mr. Evans. Yes. My focus has been really local. Mining is a
very local thing. And they are in areas that are very rural.
Focusing on programs where the Federal Government assists
with local or state or county governments with community
colleges. I gave the example of Great Basin College; I was
amazed to see what they put together on a shoestring.
Basically, in some cases with donations, with some small
grants. But if they had more opportunities and more resources,
I think they could do more.
There's a number of, when younger kids, they want to leave,
they don't come back, but there's also nothing for them. So, if
you can show them a path, you can start to identify that in
high school not only trades training, but also some of the more
sophisticated whether it be around instrumentation.
Then to the point which we've heard from the larger
universities as well. These jobs are technical, so the mining
done by us is actually done by a coal company. So, that's
another thing that we can do here, is that you actually bring
in allied industries that--it's the same thing. We're doing
surface mining. We're using North American coal. It's 120-year-
old company out of Cleveland, Ohio that does late night mining
and phosphate mining in the U.S.
But the STEM students, they can go to Apple, they can go to
others. We have a very sophisticated operation. I could run our
control room from Reno, Nevada 200 miles away. Bringing that
where these industries are growing, they're developing, I think
you need both. You need the professional STEM folks, but also
it all starts local. The folks that are going to live every day
around that facility grow families there. And actually,
hopefully some folks come home.
Senator Hickenlooper.
Dr. Baskaran.
Dr. Baskaran. Money makes the world move. And I think
appropriations are really important because we have so many
existing programs and mechanisms in place. But a lot of these
were developed before--were not made fit for purpose for
mining. Because they were not at a point. It was really what,
the last 15 years when we discovered minerals could be
weaponized and we went into a panic, I mean, maybe 15 years is
generous might be like 7.
When I think about this, what I had kind of mentioned
earlier, was like our Fulbright program has expanded so many
times, and it's such a good way to get academics,
practitioners, and students to move and cross pollinate that
information.
National Science Foundation, I grew up in a academic
household, always heard like programs fail or succeed on the
basis of the amount of money they have available, to be able to
execute good teaching, good research, good learning.
I think the third area I would suggest, again, is
appropriations to our U.S. military academies for minerals.
This is something we're working on at CSIS. These are our
future executives, Ambassadors, cabinet leaders, and they have
fantastic STEM graduates.
Making sure that we're giving exposure, I mean, to all
universities, but also to these militaries because they will go
on to be leaders and giving them the exposure--I spoke at
something at West Point in February, the amount of interest
that peaked that now we're doing subsequent events was really
exciting for me. So, I think we have the avenues, but sometimes
we just need to increase the funding to allow--to make them fit
for purpose.
Senator Hickenlooper. Got it.
Dr. Arnold.
Dr. Arnold. Certainly. So, there is a Mining Schools Act
that is making its way through Congress. If we could get that
passed, I think that would be fabulous. And beyond that, I
certainly agree with what the other witnesses have said. It's
expanding some of the things that we have directly and focusing
them on mining. We don't need to have essentially new programs,
but making sure that mining is included in a lot of those.
Senator Hickenlooper. Got it. More of everything. You guys
actually sound like a bunch of mayors and Governors. That's
what they always comment.
[Laughter.]
Senator Hickenlooper. I just want more of everything.
Senator Braun, got more questions.
Senator Braun. Couple fun facts. You said 15 percent of
Australia's GDP mining, ours is currently 1.4 percent. In 1947
it was 2.3, I thought it'd be more than that. 1957 it was 2.3,
1967 it dipped to 1.4, popped back up to 2.1 in 1977. 1987 it
was 1.5 and currently it's 1.4. Healthcare in 1987 was about 6
percent of our GDP. Now it's 18 percent. So, that shows you how
economies change.
What's the one thing other than permitting and like each of
you, and do it fairly quickly, because then I want to go to the
second question. What's the one thing the feds could do to make
it better for the issues we're talking about?
Then No. 2, when it comes to actually fixing workforce, to
me it looks like that should be the solution of the states, and
the bailiwick of education would be states. And most of your
particular programs are there. Can that be done between states
and their educational systems on correcting this. Second
question, but No. 1, what is the most important thing the feds
could do to make life easier? I'll start with Dr. Arnold.
Dr. Arnold. Well, the most important thing that the Federal
Government could do would be to, oh my--wasn't thinking we'd be
getting a question like this, but how about actually making
mining more prominent in all of the programs that we talk
about. I mean, that it is important. Just the importance of
mining.
Senator Braun. Sounds like we ought to be doing better at
that, especially when we're wanting to be so involved in new
ways of energizing stuff that's going to involve critical
minerals.
Dr. Baskaran.
Dr. Baskaran. We need a coordinated strategy for how we're
going to do this at a national level. Right now, when I look at
critical minerals, I think we counted recently, there were like
12 departments and agencies working on minerals. And
ultimately, they each have a little bit of a different angle.
DOD, DOE, state, you need a coordinated approach to
workforce development that all of these entities can weigh in
on. Because DOD needs are a little bit different from DOE needs
in terms of the education required.
Department of Education is a great place to hold a pin on
that. But there does need to be coordination between the
government or we overlap mandates and we're not doing it
efficiently; we discover these gaps. Department of Labor has
grants that go to mining, but it doesn't overlap. Coordinated
strategy, Federal one document, this is how we're going to do
this across agencies.
Mr. Evans. I'll go back to the local level. Push trades
between the state and Federal Government, folks coming out of
high school now you can make a choice. You can go to college;
you get a 4-year degree or where you can go be a trades person
in general. Trades wages pay higher.
Perhaps some grants or other incentives at the Federal
Government along with the state, through facilities and so
forth, can push that to offer another choice to graduating
seniors in high school, which is going to give them a career
that they eventually can go on and start their own business
with. We're going to have to build a lot of stuff.
I mean, I look at things more holistically. There are not
only mines, but plants, there's transmission lines, and we have
a lack of skilled trades in this country and those are the same
people. Primarily when I look at our 350 folks, you need those
skilled trades, not only to build but to operate the facilities
like this.
Mr. Zisch. Senator, I think one of the key issues is that
there's going to be, research funding is critical for mining in
the future. And I think from a government standpoint, support
of any research funding would be exceptional.
Then I think we also need to remember at least
conceptually, when we talk about mining, it's a very broad
area, it's not just the mines. There's a lot of other things,
processing is certainly essential with regard to critical
minerals, rare earth, et cetera. And if we can take a look at
doing something to help the establishment of processing
facilities, that can be quite helpful, I would think. But
research is significant.
Senator Braun. Research would seem to be something maybe
that would have to be coordinated broadly. In my opinion, when
it comes down to the successful industries that have addressed
this, that would be larger parts of our economy, they're not
waiting on this place to coordinate it. They're even not
waiting on this place to pay for it since we're borrowing 30
cents on every dollar that we spend currently. So, I think I'd
maybe look for a different business partner there, financially.
Most of them have finally put it together. And I'm going to
cite a company that's a big one, Toyota near where we live,
went into a rural area, and immediately got in business with
their local school districts. And then started initiating
apprenticeships summer jobs, jobs after school. And they are a
large employer in a rural area that was in the heart of coal
country that's figured it out without any help from this place.
Much of it, I've observed, business has expected our school
systems to spit it out. You don't have the natural proclivity
toward trades in the way it used to do when we were the No. 1
manufacturing company. We've never been that large in the
mining arena. My advice would be for the companies in this
business, don't wait on this place. Get busy with where you are
in the states you're involved with, and I think you can craft
most of the solutions that we're talking about, and you'll get
it done a lot more quickly.
If the Federal Government keeps pushing for all of this and
has not been very quick at permitting, has made it tough to
mine generally, due to their other policies, they better wise
up, they can't have their cake and eat it too. It's been a
great discussion. That'll be all the questions I have.
Senator Hickenlooper. Great. This is a more philosophical
question, because I think what Senator Braun described is that
shift toward other priorities, which is healthcare in this
case, that's a dramatic change and certainly that's a
reflection of some level of the affluence the success of our
Country.
That we can now do a lot more mining with less people. We
can do a lot more farming with less people. So, those show up
as a smaller percentage of the workforce and the jobs. But at a
certain point, just to ask your opinion. Does the swing have--
once it creates a momentum of contraction in these jobs, does
it put us in a position of vulnerability? And I guess I think
that's what I've been hearing is that now we're going to have
to import an awful lot of these workers.
If you want to build a mining infrastructure that is
resilient and protects us from being at the mercy of
adversarial nations, if we're going to import the workforce, at
what point do we begin to counteract that?
I understand more money into research, more money into the
education system, closer connection with business the various
incentives. Is that enough? The pendulum is swinging and now
we've contracted, now we're probably past the point where we
have the sufficient numbers, our education system or workforce
training system that provides the workers we need, we probably
are significantly understated. And yet it's still contracting,
right? It's not really expanding yet. If I'm right. How do you
guys measure that? Or am I wrong? It's a just a philosophical
point.
Mr. Zisch. Senator. I'll take that question. I think from
the standpoint of vulnerability, I don't think you're wrong to
start with, but I think part of the answer is actually
automation and technology. We should be able to run these mines
with less people in the future. The things that are happening
in Australia and other places where they're running remotely, I
think is part of the answer.
But that means we need to get these students coming into
the universities that see automation technology and all, as
part of the solution, and are going to come into mining to
apply those technologies and that applied research, because I
think there's a lot of opportunities out there from automation
technology, robotics, a lot of things going on.
Mr. Evans. I think as well, I'll just kind of go to a
higher level. I think the Federal Government and state
governments, those alliances doing something like this, you
need to build allies. So, you need a bit of a stamp of approval
from the Federal and state government, this is important mining
and infrastructure.
From there, I think companies are happy to partner and
we've started that already with local institutions, even
funding some of that at a local level with grants and so forth.
But the environment needs to be enticing where private capital
is going to come into this industry and actually fund all this.
So, big companies like Toyota come in, they speak to the state
government, the county, they're welcomed. It's great. You cut
ribbons. This is an industry which has a stigma right now, and
it's difficult. A lot of folks don't really want to come to
your ribbon cutting and really want to get it done.
But the goal is to have private capital fund all this. I
mean we're a recipient of the ATVM Program. It's hard to even
get funding for stuff like this because of the unknowns,
because of how much time it takes and hopefully it's just
temporary. So, you have a rush of private capital in here and
then all those things that businesses can self-fund that
themselves because it's in their own interest to do it. Right.
Dr. Baskaran. Thanks Senator. It's a very philosophical
question, so I think I'm going to go home and think about it
for a bit, but I think there's a couple quick points that jump
out to me.
One is, there's a balance also between public and private.
I can appreciate that. We can't spend our way out of
everything. One of the models that's worked really well in a
number of countries is the idea of a skills levy. So, for
example, South Africa, where there's many mining companies run
by South African CEOs. They charge a 1 percent skills levy to
mining companies that turns around and goes into a pot of money
that essentially then funds all of building the pipeline. And
South African mining engineers are everywhere in the world. And
I think a lot of that was because they took that capital and
put it back in to kind of create a circular system.
I think what we don't want is to get to a point, and my
fear is this, and I'm probably not alone, but we see countries
where there's a real workforce impediment. See Brownfield and
Greenfield mine just dry up. Because especially in a place
where you can't permit and if you don't have the workforce
development, you can't look. The U.S. has significant amounts
of lithium, it's not at the high end of a lithium because of
these various barriers. So, we as a U.S. Government, if we want
to be serious about, I don't know catching up to like and
compare advantage, there's multiple work streams that need to
push forward, but if we don't, we're going to choke ourselves
off on the mining front.
Senator Hickenlooper. Dr. Arnold.
Dr. Arnold. Certainly. One of the other things though I
think we need to be thinking about is grassroots. We need to
get into the schools and make sure that they know about the
need for the workforce, that it is high tech, I mentioned that
in my opening remarks.
In Pennsylvania, there is an opportunity before next June
30th or something like that, to go in and actually address the
STEM curriculum. It's actually called Science, Technology, and
Environmental Literacy and Sustainability Standards, STEELS,
there's more than just STEM.
I will be working with some of the folks in our education
department at Penn State to see if we can get some of the
minerals information into the curriculum. And then I forget who
mentioned veterans, or the military academies. That's the next
one of the other pieces is to go and talk to our veteran's
department on campus, to see if those students who have already
chosen Penn State might not consider a career in mining. So,
there's some grassroots things that I think we can all do
local, because every bit is local.
Senator Hickenlooper. Yes, I guess you could say all mining
is local, to turn a phrase. You have anything else you want
to--any points you would like to add? Great.
Again, thank you so much. To each of you, I know how busy
you are, and I know it takes a lot of time to get here and to
ramp up and be prepared. But it adds value and this gets
captured on C-SPAN, and who knows where, what supermarket
you'll be shopping in. Someone says, hey, aren't you Mr. Evans?
Didn't I see you? Don't you have something to do with lithium?
Anyway, thank you all, I appreciate that.
That's going to end our hearing today. I'd like to thank
our colleagues and again, our panel, and also anybody, the in-
person, viewers, and anyone watching online. For any Senators
who wish to ask additional questions, questions for the record
will be due in 10 business days, so, until June 26th at 5 p.m.
Senator Hickenlooper. The Subcommittee now stands
adjourned.
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
statement for the record
the united steel, paper and forestry, rubber, manufacturing, energy,
allied industrial and service workers international union (usw)
Chairman Hickenlooper, Ranking Member Braun, and Members of the
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions' Subcommittee on
Employment and Workplace Safety on behalf of the United Steelworkers
(USW) 850,000 members, we want to thank you for holding this important
hearing on workforce training issues in our critical minerals sector.
As the largest mining union in the United States--and with thousands
more mining members in Canada--many of these issues are top priorities
for USW.
USW miners have a long history of responsibly extracting and
refining a variety of metal and non-metal substances, including iron
ore, copper, platinum, silver, potash, trona, salt, limestone, sand,
clay, and more. Jobs in mining are unique in that they cannot be
outsourced. Mine operators need a highly skilled, local workforce to
safely work in mines and, ideally, in co-located minerals processing
facilities.
Union mining jobs are typically high-wage jobs that require a
workforce that is skilled and uniquely attuned to safety on the job and
safety for the community. Most mining jobs are located in rural
communities, making it challenging to recruit a skilled workforce from
elsewhere and necessary to train within the local community.
Our Nation's principal workforce training legislation--the
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)--has not been updated
since 2014. In that time, the economy has evolved dramatically, and yet
the tools available to workers to adapt to this shifting landscape have
remained stuck in place. In this era of advanced manufacturing, new
clean technology, and an ever-changing service sector, workers and
their employers must have access to high-quality training programs.
Accordingly, USW is glad that the HELP Committee is taking action to
update our current workforce training system and address its
shortcomings.
In this statement, we wish to outline our union's priorities when
it comes to workforce training, with lessons learned from a variety of
industries and opportunities on the horizon for critical minerals
workers.
We Need a Multi-Faceted Approach to Workforce Training for the Critical
Minerals Workforce
A major tenet of USW's philosophy on workforce training is that a
one-size-fits-all model does not work. Our membership is one of the
most diverse in the country, impacting all economic sectors: we have
members in sectors as wide-ranging as manufacturing, mining,
professional services, construction, healthcare, transportation, and so
many more. Each of these sectors--let alone the individual workplaces
within them--are all different, and as such, they require different
skills and techniques to be successful.
No one training model can work for all of those sectors. For
example, Registered Apprenticeship (RA) programs are often referred to
as the ``gold standard'' for workforce training in certain sectors--and
rightly so. For workers in the building trades, a strong, union-
sponsored RA program is the best form of training we have. This
Registered Apprenticeship structure also works in certain industrial
settings.
The reason this model works is because workers are trained in a
specific trade that is broadly applicable across workplaces. For
example, if a worker goes through an RA program and eventually becomes
a journeyperson as an ironworker, they can then use those skills as an
ironworker on a number of projects, regardless of the specifics of the
workplace (e.g., repairing a bridge or building a skyscraper).
However, there are just as many, if not more, industries where a
Registered Apprenticeship model does not work. Take two of our union's
larger sectors: mining and paper. Both are large-scale industrial
sectors where maintenance is an essential job function to make a
facility work. However, being a maintenance worker at a mine requires a
very different set of skills than being a maintenance worker at a paper
mill. As such, a standardized Registered Apprenticeship model would not
work to effectively train a worker in these settings.
Instead, what is needed is a workforce training system that is as
diverse as our economy. An optimal workforce training system built for
the 21st century economy must leverage all of the skills, talent, and
techniques that make our Country the strongest economy in the world.
This includes investments in effective training programs like
Registered Apprenticeships, while also directing resources toward other
proven training programs that develop the specific skills needed by
employers.
USW has high-quality training programs across the country that can
serve as inspiration for the types of training in mining and minerals
processing that need more Federal support. For example:
Incumbent Worker Training: USW Local 135L negotiated
with Sumitomo Rubber in Tonawanda, NY to stand up a Junior
Electrician program, which made it easier for workers to earn a
credential through an accelerated education and on-the-job
training program. Although not an official Registered
Apprenticeship program, this arrangement works with both the
employer and the workers to upskill in a way that benefits both
parties.
Partnerships With Local Community Colleges: USW
collaborates with Cleveland Cliffs and Ivy Tech Community
College in Valparaiso, IN to sponsor an ``Interdisciplinary
Industrial Workforce Certificate Program'' course worth 40
credits. The program is a pre-employment training opportunity
that offers a mix of coursework through Ivy Tech Community
College and on-the-job paid internships at Cleveland Cliffs.
Using DOE Grants to Provide Community Members With
Credentials: Funded by a Department of Energy (DOE) National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) grant, USW
Local 8-550 and Local 1-689 have partnered with West Kentucky
Community and Technical College to run a free, 240-hour
Radiation Control Technician training program to community
members in Paducah, KY. Launched in 2021, the graduates earn a
DOE-recognized credential, and fully 90 percent of the first
cohort are now employed as USW members at the Paducah plant.
These are just a few instances that underscore the multitude of
effective, union-sponsored training programs that are not Registered
Apprenticeships. As Congress considers legislation to update our
workforce training system, it is imperative that they complement the
benefits of Registered Apprenticeship programs by also investing in
alternative proven, union-sponsored programs like the ones described
here.
Labor-Management Partnerships Are on the Horizon
Our union has signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) and
partnership agreements with multiple companies in the battery materials
supply chain, all including the goal of jointly recruiting and training
a diverse, local workforce to fill these new jobs.
One exciting example is our partnership with Talon Metals, a
company in the permitting process for an underground nickel mine in
Tamarack, MN, that will employ approximately 300 workers. Talon has
also been selected for funding from the DOE's Battery Minerals
Processing Grant Program under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to
process nickel at a facility in North Dakota. USW and Talon are
collaborating on how to identify needed skills, develop local workforce
development partnerships, and recruit a local workforce for training.
While the Talon project is still a couple of years away from hiring
most of its workforce, USW expects that this partnership can serve as a
model for other parts of the industry.
We Need to Improve Our Current Workforce Training System
It is important to put our current situation into a historical and
global context. Historically, one study found that ``Federal Government
spending for workforce services and training have dropped by two-thirds
despite the fact that the labor force has grown by about 50 percent
since that time''. \1\ Looking across the world, that same study found
that many industrialized nations spend as much as five times more of
their gross domestic product (GDP) than the United States on such
active labor market policies. \2\ We need significantly more investment
if we want to provide our workers with the best-in-the-world training
that they need to succeed in our 21st century economy.
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\1\ The Brookings Institution, ``Should the Federal Government
spend more on workforce development?'' May 23, 2023
\2\ Ibid.
Another shortcoming of our existing system is the limited role that
labor plays in shaping workforce training programs. When it comes to
on-the-job training, a simple truth emerges: workers know best how to
do their jobs, and by extension, they also know what skills they could
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benefit from.
However, our current approach is not set up in a way that
recognizes this fundamental truth. For example, under WIOA, state and
local workforce development boards are overrepresented by industry and
underrepresented by labor. With such imbalance between employers and
labor, it is no wonder that our current workforce training system is
failing to meet the needs of workers.
In addition to labor's underrepresentation on state and local
workforce boards, another key limitation of our current system is that
it does not prioritize funding labor intermediaries and joint labor-
management programs. Labor-sponsored programs, for the same reason
mentioned above, are the best-known forms of effective workforce
training. As such, we strongly urge you to include priority funding for
labor-sponsored programs, as well as labor consultation and/or
concurrence language in any update to WIOA.
These represent a few of our union's major priorities as it relates
to workforce training. We appreciate the efforts that the HELP
Committee is taking to update and improve our workforce training
system, and we urge the Committee to implement our union's priorities
in any such effort.
We Need Other Policies That Support Effective Workforce Training
Lastly, in addition to strong investments in our principal
workforce training system, there is also a need to improve related
policies that we have to support workers. Market concentration by China
has the potential to create significant shifts in global prices, and
therefore operations in the United States. We only have to look at
recent history of Chinese market pressures on the steel industry, rare
earths, and other materials to see the impacts it can have on U.S.
businesses and workers. From USW's perspective, reforming the Worker
Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act and reauthorizing
Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) are key to protecting the critical
minerals workforce.
The WARN Act was passed into law back in 1988 with the goal of
providing workers advanced notice in the event of a plant closure or
mass layoff, so that they would have time to enroll in retraining
programs and/or look for a new job. Although noble in its intent, the
WARN Act has several loopholes and shortcomings that limit its
efficacy. For example, the law exempts certain ``smaller employers''
and only requires 60 days notice. Also, there are limited enforcement
mechanisms when employers fail to give adequate notice. To address
these limitations, USW has long endorsed the Fair Warning Act, which
would expand the number of firms required to give WARN notice, and it
would increase the notice timing from 60 to 90 days. USW has also been
supportive of legislative solutions to provide the Department of Labor
(DOL) with investigative and enforcement powers related to WARN
violations. These reforms would ensure that workers are actually
provided with the necessary time and resources to transition if their
workplace is to close.
Reauthorizing TAA is also critical to supporting workers who need
training after losing their job due to a trade-induced shock. These
workers, much like those impacted by WARN closures, have lost their job
through no fault of their own. Historically, these trade-displaced
workers could rely on TAA to provide income replacement, as well as
training opportunities. Much like Registered Apprenticeships for the
construction trades, TAA has often been called ``the gold standard''
for job retraining. Its efficacy in linking workers with strong
retraining programs make it a highly impactful benefit for workers.
According to a study by the Census Bureau, TAA recipients earn an
average of $50,000 more in income over a 10-year period compared to
workers who did not participate in the program. \3\ However, TAA lapsed
at the end of Fiscal Year (FY) 2022. Since then, any worker who has
lost their job since June 30, 2022 has been unable to access TAA
benefits. As of June 2024, DOL estimates that 745 petitions covering
118,057 workers are on hold, awaiting TAA to be reauthorized. USW has
strongly pushed for TAA to be reauthorized to ensure that those workers
can access these much-needed benefits.
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\3\ U.S. Census Bureau, ``Census Working Papers--Can Displaced
Labor Be Retrained? Evidence from Quasi-Random Assignment to Trade
Adjustment Assistance'', February 2022.
Taken together, each of these policy initiatives, in conjunction
with enhanced resources for workforce training, would help position the
U.S. critical minerals workforce to lead the world in responsible
extraction and processing.
Conclusion
In closing, workforce training is essential to ensuring that the
U.S. can build the needed workforce to mine and process critical
minerals necessary for the clean energy economy. To achieve this goal,
policy must guarantee that there are adequate seats at the table for
labor, increase funding for workforce training, and ensure that workers
are trained for the jobs available in their communities. Further, we
need to make sure the complementary policies align with these goals.
USW looks forward to working with Congress to ensure that the critical
minerals workforce is highly skilled and sufficient to meet demand. We
thank you again for the opportunity to submit this statement for the
record on this essential hearing.
______
MP Materials Corp,
June 10, 2024.
Hon. John Hickenlooper, Chairman,
Hon. Mike Braun, Ranking Member,
U.S. Senate Subcommittee Employment and Workplace Saftey,
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Washington, DC.
RE: STATEMENT FOR THE RECORD OF MP MATERIALS CORP. ON WORKFORCE
DEVELOPMENT IN THE CRITICAL MINERALS SECTOR
Chairman Hickenlooper, Ranking Member Braun, and distinguished
Members of the Senate Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety,
MP Materials Corp. (``MP Materials'' or ``Company'') appreciates this
opportunity to provide this written statement and supplement the record
in advance of the Subcommittee's June 12 hearing, ``Digging Deeper:
Building Our Critical Minerals Workforce.''
Introduction to MP Materials
MP Materials, headquartered in Las Vegas, Nevada, is the largest
rare earth materials producer in the United States. The Company owns
and operates the Mountain Pass Rare Earth Mine and Processing Facility
(``Mountain Pass''), located in San Bernardino County, California.
Mountain Pass is one of the world's largest integrated rare earth
production sites and the only major active resource in the United
States. MP is a publicly traded U.S. company listed on the New York
Stock Exchange with approximately 730 U.S. employees.
MP Materials' mission is to restore the full rare earth supply
chain to the United States. Rare earth elements (``REE'') are a group
of 17 chemical elements (15 lanthanides and two transition metals) with
a wide range of high-tech applications. Neodymium magnets, which are
manufactured from an alloy containing REEs, are the strongest and most
efficient permanent magnets commercially available. These magnets
enable the conversion of energy into motion (and motion into energy)
inside motors, actuators, and generators found in hybrid and electric
vehicles, critical defense systems, robotics, wind turbines, drones,
and electronics. As electrification and autonomy take hold across the
global economy, demand for REEs and permanent magnets is growing.
MP Materials was founded in 2017 to acquire Mountain Pass, after
severe operational and financial challenges forced the site's previous
owner into bankruptcy. At the time, the facility was idle with just
eight employees. Since restarting operations from cold-idle, MP
Materials has increased production at Mountain Pass dramatically. In
2023, MP Materials produced approximately 12 percent of global rare
earth content at Mountain Pass. We believe Mountain Pass is now the
world's second most productive rare earth mine. Additionally, in 2023,
we began producing separated and refined rare earth products at newly
commissioned processing facilities collocated at Mountain Pass, thereby
filling a critical void in the midstream of the supply chain.
To fulfill our mission to restore the full supply chain, MP is
currently constructing and equipping the first fully integrated
neodymium magnet manufacturing facility built in America in decades, in
Fort Worth, Texas. This facility will transform rare earth materials
produced at Mountain Pass into metals, alloys, and finished neodymium
magnets for General Motors and other American manufacturers.
Efforts to Build Our Workforce
At MP Materials, our workforce is the backbone of our operations.
We are dedicated to building a talented, committed, and skilled team
that drives our mission forward. Since relaunching production at
Mountain Pass in July 2017, we have grown from eight contractors to
approximately 730 full-time employees. This significant increase in our
workforce reflects our rapid business expansion and a commitment to
fostering a culture that prioritizes ownership, safety, and
professional growth.
Central to our operations is the ``owner-operator'' philosophy we
promulgate, which empowers every employee to take ownership of their
work and the Company's success. We believe that when employees are
stakeholders, they are more engaged, motivated, and aligned with our
mission. This culture fosters innovation, accountability, and a shared
commitment to excellence. Our employees are encouraged to think and act
like owners, which drives continuous improvement and operational
success. To align incentives, every full-time employee of the company
receives equity compensation.
Retention is a critical component of our workforce strategy. We
recognize that retaining skilled employees is essential for maintaining
operational excellence and achieving long-term goals. To this end, we
offer competitive pay and comprehensive benefits that include health
management programs and an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) to support
the mental and physical health of our employees and their families. Our
efforts have resulted in a retention rate of over 90 percent,
underscoring our success in creating a supportive and rewarding work
environment.
To ensure our employees are equipped with the necessary skills and
knowledge, we provide comprehensive training and development programs.
All new employees undergo a minimum of 24 hours of training during
onboarding, followed by annual refresher courses and specific field
training. In 2022, our employees completed over 7,500 hours of new hire
and refresher training and 1,792 hours of emergency medical response
training. Our employees' career progression is based upon continuous
skill development and mastery through field and computer-based
training. We also offer apprenticeship programs that combine classroom
education with practical field experience. These programs, particularly
in electrical and instrumentation, allow employees to obtain journeyman
licenses, enhancing their professional opportunities and earning
potential.
Our workforce development initiatives include partnerships with
local high schools, community colleges, and universities to create
tailored recruiting and training programs that meet our industry's
needs. These partnerships help establish a talent pipeline and provide
students with practical experience and job opportunities upon
graduation. By collaborating with educational institutions, we support
local workforce development and create pathways for students to enter
high-demand fields.
The health and safety of our employees is paramount. Every staff
meeting begins with a ``safety share,'' where employees are encouraged
to discuss recent safety observations, potential hazards, and
preventive measures. Our annual calendar features safety-focused art
drawn by the children of our employees. The finished product serves as
a vivid and daily reminder of the importance of returning home safely.
This relentless focus on safety has contributed to an impressive
record--in more than 4 years, no employee of MP Materials has
experienced a lost time injury.
By investing in our workforce through training and development, we
create pathways for career advancement and professional growth. Our
employees benefit from a supportive work environment that encourages
continuous learning and skill development, helping them progress in
their careers and contribute to the Company's long-term success. This
focus on professional growth from within is key to our retention
strategy, as employees see clear career paths and opportunities for
advancement within the Company.
Recommendations to Cultivate an Effective Workforce
The mining and mineral processing industry suffers from a critical
shortage in skilled labor. In addition, skilled trades (machinists,
mobile and stationary equipment mechanics, electricians,
instrumentation technicians, millwrights, etc.) are increasingly
difficult to retain, resulting in low labor productivity and
underutilization of assets. U.S. critical material producers must
compete in global commodity markets, and this directly impairs U.S.
competitiveness and therefore mineral security. We recommend further
investments by the U.S. Government into developing the skilled trade
workforce in regions involved in critical minerals production. To
address this challenge and ensure the sustainability of the industry,
we recommend the following government actions:
Support for Education and Training Programs: The government
should increase funding for education and training programs
focused on industrial equipment used in mining, mineral
processing, and related fields. Partnerships with middle
schools, high schools, community colleges, vocational schools,
and universities can help develop specialized curriculums that
align with industry needs. Apprenticeship programs, similar to
those we have implemented, should be supported and expanded to
provide hands-on training and professional certification
opportunities. At MP Materials, starting operator wages,
excluding voluntary overtime and benefits, offer equivalent
compensation to entry-level positions that require a 4-year
college degree. Rates of growth in compensation significantly
above inflation are achieved through lines of progression tied
to on-the-job training. At the same time, skilled trades-people
have wages that reach well into the six figures. Having
educational institutions inform young people of this potential
rewarding career path while also providing basic skills
necessary for success would be a huge benefit to U.S. critical
minerals development.
Incentives for Workforce Development: Offering tax credits or
subsidies to companies that invest in workforce development can
encourage businesses to prioritize training and education.
These incentives can help offset the costs associated with
comprehensive training programs and make it more feasible for
companies to invest in their employees' professional growth.
Promotion of STEM Education: Encouraging STEM (Science,
Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education from an
early age is crucial for developing future talent. Government
initiatives that promote STEM programs in schools, provide
scholarships for STEM students, and support extracurricular
activities like robotics clubs and science fairs can inspire
the next generation of professionals in the mining and mineral
processing industry.
Support for Advanced Research and Development: Investing in
research and development (R&D) can drive innovation and
efficiency in the mining and mineral processing industry.
Government grants and funding for R&D projects, particularly
those focused on technologies capable of creating meaningful
commercial outcomes in mineral processing in the near and
medium term, will help companies stay competitive and attract
top talent interested in working with cutting-edge
technologies.
Implementation of National Workforce Development Strategies:
The government should develop and implement a comprehensive
national workforce development strategy for the mining and
mineral processing industry. This strategy should include a
clear vision, goals, and action plans to address current and
future workforce needs. Regular assessments and updates to the
strategy will ensure it remains relevant and effective.
Conclusion
MP Materials is dedicated to restoring the full rare earth supply
chain to the United States and to building a talented, committed, and
skilled workforce. We believe that with a level playing field and the
right support, American producers can work with educators to address
the critical skills shortage and ensure the sustainability and growth
of the domestic critical minerals mining and processing industry.
Although the industry faces headwinds, we are optimistic that the
growth and community enrichment that has occurred in Mountain Pass,
California, can be replicated across the country.
Thank you for the opportunity to provide this written testimony. We
would be pleased to further engage with the Subcommittee on the issues
and opportunities and look forward to working together to achieve these
goals.
Respectfully submitted,
Matt Sloustcher,
Senior Vice President,
Communications and Policy,
MP Materials Corp.
______
[Whereupon, at 3:50 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
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