Thank you Payne Institute for Public Policy for highlighting the opportunities and challenges under the surface of the energy transition.
"...it has been estimated that as many as 284 additional mines will be required to develop the critical minerals needed for the Net Zero transition, up from 280 active mines in 2022 (Zisch, 2024)."
"... obtaining a mine permit in the U.S. has taken 7-10 years vs. 2-3 in Canada and Australia; industry estimates of the cost of such delays are as much as 50% of the mine’s expected financial returns."
"The average age of a mining worker in the U.S. is 46, and 50% of skilled engineers are approaching retirement age within the next decade (Zisch, 2024)."
"The number of mining and mineral engineering programs at U.S. universities has declined from 25 in 1982 to 14 today. This reduction has been accompanied by a corresponding decrease in faculty, with the number of professors in these programs falling from approximately 120 in 1984 to around 70 thirty years later. The result is a decline in engineering graduates to 162 as of 2023, well short of the perceived need and, for comparison, roughly 1/16 the rate of graduates from Chinese mining engineering programs (2500-3000 graduates per year) (National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2024)."
Managing Director, Aria Commodities - Energy, Renewables and Minerals Group
2moCongrats 🙌