Building Capacity for the U.S. Mineral Resources Workforce: Proceedings of a Workshop (2024)
Chapter: 3 Growing Mineral Resources Programs at Universities
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Growing Mineral Resources Programs at Universities
Decisions made today regarding university enrollment, staffing, and programs will have profound implications for the future of mining in the United States. The workshop’s first session focused on how to build up mineral resources programs at universities and align educational programs with the projected workforce needs. Simon Jowitt, University of Nevada, Reno, moderated a series of introductory presentations on university enrollment trends and examples of projected needs, which was followed by a panel discussion on strategies for success in administering and growing Earth resources programs.
ENROLLMENT AND WORKFORCE TRENDS FOR MINING ENGINEERING
Vladislav Kecojevic, Society of Mining Professors, provided an overview of enrollment trends for the field of mining engineering. Today, there are only 14 mining engineering programs in the United States. These programs collectively enrolled only 590 undergraduate students in spring 2023, down from a total of 1,449 in 2015 (Figure 3-1), with an average of 42 bachelor of science students per program and an enrollment drop of 60 percent between 2015 and 2023. A similar trend is seen for program completion, with 371 bachelor of science degrees awarded in 2015 and only 162 in 2023, averaging 12 mining engineers graduated per school in 2023 (Society of Mining Professors and Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration, 2021; data collected by Kecojevic). Kecojevic pointed out that while Australia and Canada have experienced similar downward trends, China is far outperforming the United States in terms of number of mining engineering graduates. China’s 45 mining engineering programs currently enroll about 12,000 students and graduate approximately 3,000 per year—about 16 times that of the United States (data collected by Kecojevic).
SOURCE: Presented by Vladislav Kecojevic, January 23, 2024. Data collected by the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration and the Society of Mining Professors.
In terms of current and future demand for mining engineers, only a few studies provide quantitative information. Kecojevic said that the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration estimated in 2023 that 500–600 mining engineers would be needed each year if no new mines opened (LeVier, 2023), while the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates job openings for an additional 400 mining and geological engineers each year (BLS, n.d.b).
Why are fewer students interested in mining? Kecojevic said that no matter what country he visits, mining professors report hearing similar reasons from students: lack of exposure to and knowledge about the modern mining industry; concerns that the mining industry is unsafe, unhealthy, damages the environment, and contributes to climate change; the perception that mining mostly involves underground coal mining; and concerns about the lifestyle of mining engineers. There is also a perception that the industry offers limited and narrow employment opportunities only in remote locations, that there are few females in the industry, and that it is not family friendly.
Despite the somewhat grim outlook, there is some positive news. If passed, Kecojevic reported, the Mining Schools Act of 20231 would authorize $10 million each year from 2024 through 2031 for Department of Energy grants that support mining programs at institutions of higher education. Additionally, Kecojevic noted that high-profile individuals are talking about the need for critical minerals, and news outlets are starting to use more positive language when reporting on the use of minerals to support societal needs.
“Moving forward, I think there needs to be a radical rethink of the way we approach student recruitment and retention,” said Kecojevic. “Traditional recruiting approaches, including social media efforts, aren’t working. We need help from other fields.” To this end, he suggested engaging professionals from areas outside of mining, such as marketing and psychology, to learn more about effectively engaging with younger generations; collaborating with high-profile individuals; and building and investing continually in a K–12 science curriculum.
ENROLLMENT AND WORKFORCE TRENDS FOR THE GEOSCIENCES
Chris Keane, American Geosciences Institute, presented enrollment and workforce trends through the lens of the geosciences. He noted that the minerals industry is competing against the rest of the geoscience industries and that the locations where geoscience workers are employed in the United States are changing rapidly. The latest Bureau of Labor Statistics employment projections for the geoscience workforce (categorized by industry) showed that the mining and oil and gas extraction workforce was decreasing in terms of traditional positions. However, there has been growth in the mining support and professional services sectors, which are increasingly taking on many roles in the geoscience industry (BLS, n.d.a).
Noting that student enrollments are still recovering from the upheavals of the COVID-19 pandemic, Keane speculated that it will likely be another 2 years until the new normal is apparent. In his view, the biggest area of concern is with graduate-level enrollments (Figure 3-2). “We went 40 years with graduate programs in the United States at full capacity in the geosciences,” he said. “During the pandemic, we saw a lot of programs cut their number of seats as far as accepting geoscience students; we are basically running at half of the capacity that we were for master’s and Ph.D. students.” Another trend that Keane noted is that many geosciences departments report that more incoming juniors are becoming geoscience majors. He attributed this shift to more students realizing the job opportunities within the geosciences and making the move late in their college careers.
In the resources sector—whether energy, minerals, or water—job growth is moving to the downstream supply chain areas. At the same time, some jobs are shifting from major companies and moving to scientific professional services companies that contract for specialized work. Today, 42 percent of all geoscientists are working in scientific professional services companies, but the data for these positions are not differentiated into mining, water, or energy (BLS, n.d.a). Looking at the mining industry’s percentage of new-graduate employment (Figure 3-3), Keane said that mining appears to be doing well. He also noted
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1 See https://www.congress.gov/bill/118th-congress/senate-bill/912.
that it is important to consider the need for a competent workforce in areas such as government regulatory agencies that interface with the mineral resources sector (Keane, 2023).
Keane suggested that meeting the industry’s needs will require aggressive recruitment of students, akin to the approach taken in the physics community. He said that geoscience graduates are getting jobs, making the field attractive to students. However, Keane noted, this feedback loop is relatively inefficient. At the same time, geosciences departments are changing. Many are increasing their focus on licensure and certification, which has made them more competitive against engineering programs and has helped drive enrollment. “I’d argue that we’re seeing more and more students look at colleges with a utilitarian approach,” said Keane. “This should be advantageous for an applied area like the mineral sector because they will look at the prospects of getting a job after completing the degree.”
Keane emphasized the importance of marketing and inclusivity in recruiting more students to the field. “You have to capture the positive vision of the future and of being a larger part of society,” he said. “This means stressing the growth, the innovation, and diversity of opportunities to pull in more than just the core STEM2 folks.” He pointed out that many of those employed in geosciences fields did not arrive via a geoscience degree. Building interdisciplinary exposures, therefore, represents another opportunity to bolster the discipline.
NOTE: While undergraduate enrollments have begun to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, graduate-level enrollments remain down.
SOURCE: Presented by Chris Keane, January 23, 2024.
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2 STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.
SOURCE: Presented by Chris Keane, January 23, 2024.
PANEL DISCUSSION ON ADMINISTERING AND GROWING EARTH RESOURCES PROGRAMS
The presentations by Kecojevic and Keane were followed by a panel discussion composed of university administrators that delved deeper into successful strategies for administering and growing Earth resources programs. Eric Riggs, California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, moderated the discussion, which included representatives from schools that are developing new mining programs and others that have been working to grow existing programs.
Lessons from Restarting a Mining Engineering Program After a Decades-Long Hiatus
Heather Wilson, president of The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP), discussed how her institution is willing to restart a mining engineering program. Although the school has a strong foundation in geosciences, environmental science, and civil engineering, it has not offered a mining engineering degree
since 1964. She pointed out that the four largest states by population—Texas, Florida, California, and New York—do not have a university that offers a mining engineering degree and that this represents a lost opportunity. Most students attend college in the state where they grew up—usually within 200 miles of their home—so getting a student to move and pay out-of-state tuition is a significant barrier to enrolling more mining engineering students.
Even more concerning, in an analysis of mining engineering programs, UTEP estimated that many other programs in the United States are likely not financially viable, although the tuition, fees, and state support revenue numbers are unique to every state. According to UTEP’s analysis, Wilson said that a new mining engineering program in a university with associated disciplines would take about 5 years to reach financial sustainability and about 7 years to reach steady-state enrollment. However, UTEP found that it would never be possible to achieve financial viability by graduating fewer than 50 students a year, even with a $15 million endowment for the program. Given that the United States is already down to 14 mining engineering programs, she said, “We should also be concerned about what the next 10 years will bring for the remaining degree programs.”
When examining what it would take to design a viable program to restart mining engineering at UTEP, two issues were identified. The first was that of culture. “UTEP is one of the few schools in the country that celebrates our mining heritage and where restarting the program would probably not be an issue,” Wilson said. The other primary issue was the significant start-up cost. The university is designing the new program to graduate 100 students per year, which would require enrolling 120 students annually. Graduating 100 students per year would result in a 40 percent increase in the country’s mining engineers. This may seem ambitious, but Wilson said that it should be possible because Texas has a growing population with more than 1.7 million college students—more than the populations of South Dakota and Wyoming combined.
Looking ahead, Wilson suggested asking schools with mining engineering programs to identify and communicate what these programs need to be viable, which is likely different for each program. She also suggested examining what it would take to start mining engineering programs in the large-population states that currently lack them. “We have to look at where the population and the industry need is,” she said. “In the state of Texas, mining is an $8 billion industry, and we do not have a mining engineering program—and we should.”
Insights on the Value of Engaging Industry
Mohammad Dehghani, chancellor of Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T), discussed how his school has programs in geological sciences, geological engineering, extractive metallurgy, and mining engineering—every major discipline that works with mining. He highlighted how the university is successfully growing its mining engineering program. One of the first steps was to separate mining engineering into its own department. In addition, leaders decided to add explosives engineering to the name of the department to increase its appeal. “What tenth grader do you know that’s not interested in explosives engineering?” Dehghani quipped. The school also invited two mining industry CEOs to join its board of trustees—which had previously included no mining industry representatives—so that their voices would be heard at the highest level. “We learned from these board members and the industry that mining and geological economics are also important to them,” said Dehghani. “So, we hired a faculty member to bring the economics aspect of the discipline into the program.” Missouri S&T also worked to get resources from the state and is trying to find financial support to endow a professor of practice.
Dehghani said that a primary challenge to growing mining engineering programs is attracting students. Missouri S&T hired a recruiter specifically for mining engineering and leveraged the school’s alumni in the Academy of Mining and Metallurgy to go to local high schools to speak about the importance of mining and the opportunities that exist in the industry. Dehghani pointed out that while a mechanical engineering major understands that they can get a job with an aerospace company or with a mining company, it is difficult to convince a mining engineering major that they could also have a career in aerospace. He also stated that even if a program has adequate financial support, it will become a research
center rather than a workforce education and development institution if it cannot attract enough students to the program. In closing, he underscored the role of industry in student recruitment. “I think investments and advocacy for the industry that comes from the industry is going to be hugely instrumental in attracting students into the discipline,” Dehghani said.
Strategies for Attracting Today’s Students
Walter Copan, vice president for research and technology transfer at Colorado School of Mines, highlighted strategies for attracting students into the mineral resources field. He noted that engagement with industry is part of his university’s culture and has been essential in building strong and sustainable interdisciplinary programs. Copan also noted that today’s students place a high priority on making a difference in the world. As a result, he said, attracting them requires building awareness and creating curricula that are exciting and interdisciplinary by bringing together Earth resources, engineering, data sciences, artificial intelligence, mathematics, economics, business, and innovation. He also pointed out that interdisciplinary approaches can be valuable for connecting the research and investment enterprise with the social and economic aspects of the field. For example, the School of Mines has a humanitarian engineering class that examines social justice and other dimensions.
Another way the school attracts students is by collaborating closely with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), Copan noted. For example, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated funding for the construction of USGS’s Energy and Minerals Research Building on the Colorado School of Mines campus. This federal–academic partnership will help foster the mineral resources workforce by giving students an opportunity to see firsthand the research occurring at USGS and the future of the geosciences field.
Transfer programs are also an important source of students. For example, those coming in with a 2-year associate of engineering degree might be introduced to mining engineering through an Earth sciences class. The School of Mines also established a scholarship program for mining engineering students that includes an introduction to global energy futures3 and the future of the mining sector. “It’s a chance for them to really get experience and get exposure to people who are in the industry, and who can tell them personally and invite them to engage with the industry future,” Copan said.
Finally, Copan emphasized the importance of advocating for future investment in the mineral resources sector because students and faculty will naturally “follow the money” and look for industries where there are ample opportunities. He suggested that a national dialogue about the future of research and innovation will be instrumental in attracting the next generation of leaders to mineral resources sectors.
Addressing Negative Perceptions and Promoting a New Vision
Misael Cabrera, director of the School of Mining and Mineral Resources at University of Arizona, discussed opportunities to support and grow mineral resources programs through efforts to update curricula and change how society views the field. To reverse the trend of falling enrollments, he stated that it will be imperative to address the pervasive negative perception of mining. “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,” he 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.”
Given the growing need for those minerals, Cabrera highlighted the importance of investing in the circular economy and recycling, to supplement traditional mining and counteract some of the negative environmental connotations many people associate with mining. He noted that the University of Arizona received a $3.6 million grant from the state to investigate how to reprocess tailings economically. He added that the university is also thinking more creatively about recruiting students to the field, such as by leveraging the game Minecraft to help students understand the need for raw materials. In exploring new
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3 The study of global futures is the study of strategic foresight into emerging trends.
strategies, Cabrera pointed to the importance of sharing information among all the mining universities. “We’re not competing against each other,” he said. “We’re competing against computer science and computer engineering.”
In terms of curriculum, Cabrera called for more general education courses that introduce young people to the ways mining underpins many aspects of modern life. He pointed to the school’s general education course called “Limited Natural Resources and Civilizations,” which covers mineral resources issues across civilizations and demonstrates how negative outcomes can happen when mineral supplies are scarce. He also suggested establishing more minor programs like those at the University of Arizona to allow students in any major to minor in sustainable minerals or sustainable mining. Finally, he added that an interdisciplinary approach can be beneficial, noting that the university is supporting faculty efforts to create courses both on machine learning and on electric circuits and power systems in the mining industry.
Other Challenges and Opportunities in Faculty and Student Recruitment
During the discussion, panelists raised several additional challenges, including issues related to attracting and supporting faculty in addition to students. Cabrera emphasized that extraordinary faculty who care about students will be critical to growing the workforce. While it is important to focus on enrollment, he said, excellent faculty will bring in more students and funding. Wilson highlighted that the lack of qualified Ph.D.s creates a shortage of potential faculty and that a decrease in graduate program enrollment will lead to increased competition to hire the high-quality faculty necessary to expand these programs. Dehghani posited that economic realities represent a bigger influence on campus than any type of bias against mining. “When we have departments like mechanical, electrical, civil engineering, computer engineering . . . that are bursting at the seams with . . . students and we do our decision making based on student-to-faculty ratios, then it’s difficult to hire faculty members in a department that’s struggling to enroll,” he said.
Copan suggested that highlighting the problem-solving aspects of mining can help with both faculty and student engagement. He said that one of the things he has done as vice president for research and tech transfer is to emphasize the undergraduate research experience, whether that is at the university, at a federal laboratory or institute, or sponsored by or at a corporate location. “Those early research experiences get the hooks into students, so to speak, to pursue graduate research and to follow their passions,” he said. Additionally, he said, several of the programs that have been most effective connect mineral resources with society and international outreach. This includes, for example, programs with partner institutions in various parts of Africa, the Middle East, and South America that bring their faculty and students to work with mining operations in the host country. Such programs provide students and faculty with the opportunity to look at different societal needs and the environmental challenges of supporting those needs.
