UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State showcased its leadership in critical minerals and materials research and workforce development through a recent three-day workshop that brought together nearly 150 representatives from academia, industry and government agencies.
“Penn State integrates world-class critical minerals and materials research with pilot-scale processing and manufacturing, policy and economic analysis and workforce development across one coordinated, land-grant platform,” said Joshua Robinson, the convening host and director of the Materials Research Institute (MRI) at Penn State. “We’ve brought together people from academia, industry and government with the goal of identifying areas for collaboration and partnerships.”
Critical minerals and materials include more than 60 federally designated minerals that underpin technologies including clean energy, cell phones, medical devices, the power grid and other advanced systems. They are deemed critical because these materials are necessary for economic and national security but are vulnerable to supply chain disruption.
Workshop participants said that at a time when national emphasis on critical minerals is at a high, it’s necessary to promote cross-sector collaboration and innovation in all areas from exploration to manufacturing, recycling and workforce development.
“The White House has recognized the urgent need for workforce development in the minerals industry,” said John Mauro, interim John Leone Dean in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences. “It is a pleasure to see Penn State’s leadership in addressing this pressing issue for our country.”
Hosted by the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and MRI, the workshop included lectures, panel discussions and tours of research facilities across campus. More than 20 speakers and panelists explored research advancements, workforce development, circular economies, social perception and other factors key to critical minerals and materials use and development. Industry and government made up, with the rest being academic representatives. It was a follow up to last year’s successful Penn State gathering.
Among the speakers was Quin Miller, a senior chemist at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). He described how researchers at PNNL developed a patent-pending process to mine by moving fluids instead of rocks. The process involves delivering carbon dioxide as a supercritical fluid, behaving between a liquid and gas, into the porous rocks of existing mines, which then allows the fluid enriched with critical minerals to be extracted and permanently sequesters the CO2 into carbonates.
“We require a paradigm shift in how critical mineral and energy assets are identified, characterized, extracted and coupled with other technologies,” Miller said. “Importantly, this is a parallel technology that can be implemented in legacy mines, future mine sites or on the outskirts of mining operations. It’s very complimentary to the current technology.”
Chief of staff for Critical Minerals, Materials and Manufacturing at the U.S. Department of Energy, Jeremy Mehta, discussed another path to increasing domestic critical mineral supply: recycling.
“Currently less than 5% of materials in waste streams are recycled domestically,” Mehta said. “But the good news is that the systems we need are represented here. Academia, to help with discovery, validation and education; government to help de-risk and target its funding and support in areas that are most vulnerable and industry to specify feed stocks and standards for the downstream pull of these materials.”
Mehta discussed recycling waste from the extraction and processing of mined materials and especially from e-waste — discarded electronic devices. Critical minerals are required for making many of these products and the inherent value of these materials should be recovered and recycled rather than left sitting in landfills.
“We need to look at recycling not as a single step, but as a chain from end-of-use to reintroduction,” Mehta said.
Jennifer Dunn, professor of chemical and biological engineering and director of the Center of Engineering Sustainability and Resilience at Northwestern University, said that along with increasing the supply of critical minerals and materials through mining innovation and recycling, improving the public perception of mining is necessary for continued production.
“Even if we pursue aggressive recycling, we’ll still need mines,” Dunn said. “But negative public perception poses a risk to domestic supply chains. The public is concerned about water consumption, waste generation and pollution, so we have to think about responsible mining.”
Beia Spiller, fellow and director of the Transportation Program at Resources for the Future, also highlighted the need for public trust and connected it to increasing the workforce through less traditional avenues. She discussed how much attention has focused on increasing the number of mining engineers or metallurgists, but there are “hidden workforce” gaps like public sector capacity, social science expertise and global talent that also need to be addressed.
“Federal and state capacity means easier permitting, regulatory review and innovation support, and social scientists help shape durable minerals policy and build the community trust that is needed for project development, ” Spiller said. “Global talent can also be called upon to bring in the technical know-how while we ramp up the domestic workforce.”
Closing the convening, Joshua Robinson expressed his excitement in the partnerships and collaborations built during the workshop. One of the goals was to establish a cohesive network across universities, national labs and industry in alignment with U.S. priorities, he said.
Robinson described the convening as a starting point in a broader effort to position Penn State and its partners as a national hub for critical minerals and materials. He encouraged potential collaborators to contact him as regional and national initiatives — and proposal teams — take shape.