Tackling the STEM Skills Gap in 3 Weeks

Justin Shaffer, teaching professor of chemical and biological engineering, and John Spear, professor of civil and environmental engineering, wrote this opinion piece about the first Field Session for Quantitative Biosciences and Engineering.
August 2, 2023

Denver’s Lockheed Martin to build nuclear reactor engine for spacecraft

“Nuclear thermal propulsion is an important technology if we're talking space exploration,” said Dr. Jeffrey King, a professor of nuclear engineering at the Colorado School of Mines in an interview with The Denver Gazette. “If we're going to get ....
August 1, 2023

Today's energy economy is building Colorado's zero-carbon future

Anna Littlefield, Morgan Bazilian and Simon Lomax of the Payne Institute for Public Policy wrote this opinion piece about how Colorado is ahead of the curve when it comes to the energy transition.
July 26, 2023

The Energy Transition Will Require Cobalt. America’s Only Mine Can’t Get Off the Ground.

In relatively small markets for critical minerals, it remains unclear if Washington will be able to jump-start investment or have to settle for subsidizing projects that can’t stand up on their own, said Rod Eggert, an economics professor at the ....
July 22, 2023

Gem Hunters Found the Lithium America Needs. Maine Won’t Let Them Dig It Up

“If we’re talking about critical metals and materials, we’re so far behind that it’s crazy,” says Corby Anderson, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines. “It’s the dichotomy of the current administration—they have incentives for electric ....
July 17, 2023

Minnesota locked in global dilemma: More copper and nickel are needed, but mine development slow

"We are terrible and very slow at building infrastructure of any kind," said Morgan Bazilian, a professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines. But given the mining industry's history, tribes and environmental groups have reason for ....
July 15, 2023

The ocean floor is mysterious and filled with life. Humans might turn it into a mine.

Robots would prospect the area to determine where to mine. That reconnaissance would be aimed at doing as little damage as possible, said Jamal Rostami, a professor of mining engineering at the Colorado School of Mines.
July 15, 2023

China Controls Minerals That Run the World—and It Just Fired a Warning Shot at U.S.

“We would be foolish to limit our thinking that that kind of thing is impossible,” said Morgan Bazilian, director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines. “If you keep ratcheting up your tit-for-tat, that’s one area ....
July 7, 2023

China Fires a Fresh Salvo in the Chip War

"We see some positive signs of diplomacy, but they don’t appear to be influencing this sort of downward, tit-for-tat spiral," said Morgan Bazilian, the director of the Payne Institute at the Colorado School of Mines.
July 6, 2023

The U.S. Strategic Minerals Situation Is Critical

“The entire political system is very taken with the fact that China dominates the overall space, and it’s become one of the only areas of roughly bipartisan agreement,” said Morgan Bazilian, the director of the Payne Institute at the Colorado School ....
June 30, 2023

NDAA takes aim at critical mineral supply chain

"While they don't have dominance across all the mineral mining itself, they are very strong and have made a lot of investments over a long period of time in companies that do that mining," said Morgan Bazilian, a professor at the Colorado School of ....
June 30, 2023

Western tribes' last ditch effort to stall a large lithium mine near Oregon-Nevada border

Corby Anderson, a metallurgist at the Colorado School of Mines, said the Nevada mine would be an important domestic source of lithium, which the U.S. currently imports primarily from South America now.
June 28, 2023