South Dakota Mines Team Selected for $1 Million DOE PROSPECT Planning Prize to Help Rebuild America’s Critical Minerals Workforce
A team from South Dakota Mines has been selected as a winner of the U.S. Department
of Energy Providing Opportunities for Specialized Education in Critical Technologies
(PROSPECT) Planning Prize, earning a $1 million cash award to support planning for
education and workforce development in critical minerals and related technologies..
The DOE announced the list of winners today, with Mines among the 16 universities receiving funding.
According to the DOE release, the winning universities will advance nationwide efforts to grow the skilled workforce required to produce, process, recover and recycle critical minerals in the United States while creating good-paying jobs.
“America has abundant natural resources, but we need the skilled workforce to turn those resources into economic drivers that will grow our economy and create new jobs,” said Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson. “For decades, we have allowed our mining and critical minerals workforce to decline and our domestic supply chains of critical minerals to weaken. PROSPECT is about reversing that trend by challenging universities to rapidly grow the number of graduates ready to build and sustain the American critical minerals supply chains, from mines to materials.”
The PROSPECT Planning Prize aims to help universities develop plans to expand specialized education and prepare more graduates to support the nation’s critical minerals supply chains, from mining and extraction to materials and downstream applications. The winning universities demonstrated outstanding planning for innovative programs aimed at substantially increasing the number of graduates and other credentialed professionals prepared for careers in mining and related supply chain fields in the next two years.
“Rebuilding America’s critical minerals workforce starts with getting more students into these fields, and that’s exactly what this prize will help us do,” said Andrea Brickey, Ph.D., professor in the university's Department of Mining Engineering and Management. “South Dakota Mines has been educating mining engineers, geologists and metallurgists for more than a century. This support lets us expand recruitment and outreach so we can graduate more of the professionals the nation needs, from mines to materials.”
The DOE prize builds on the university’s longstanding role in educating professionals for the mineral industries and recent investments in critical minerals education and research.
In 2024, Mines opened the Nucor Mineral Industries Building, a state-of-the-art facility supporting mining engineering, metallurgy, geological engineering and materials science. The facility was made possible through strong support from the state of South Dakota, industry partners and alumni, reflecting a shared commitment to preparing the next generation of mineral industry professionals. Mines has also added new critical minerals minors and continues research in areas including rare earth elements, advanced mineral processing and materials technologies.
The DOE money will be used to assist with student recruitment, outreach and the implementation of educational programs within the university’s three mineral industries disciplines: mining engineering and management, geology and geological engineering and materials and metallurgical engineering.
The PROSPECT Planning Prize is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation (CMEI). The prize is managed by the National Laboratory of the Rockies under the American-Made program. The original DOE press release can be found here.