At 80 years of age I am a youngster compared with some in our profession. That prolific scribe Prof. Fathi Habashi was churning out books and book reviews and giving keynote lectures well into his 90s and Prof. Graeme Jameson is still leading a team of researchers on "long term" flotation projects at the age of 90.
Fran Burgess has highlighted, on LinkedIn, an article showing how an 86-year-old metallurgist has been lured out of retirement because the Western world has run out of people who know what he knows.
Metallurgy is not a simple discipline. Rare earth processing alone can involve dozens of extraction stages and years of hands-on experience that lives in people and walks out the door with them when they leave.
Rare earth plants are particularly complicated and expensive to build, but perhaps the biggest challenge is finding talent to run the facilities. Even if Western companies secure enough raw materials to reduce reliance on China, which dominates every stage of the supply chain, from mining to magnets, there are few chemical engineers and metallurgists experienced in rare earths.
"When companies ask me where to find them" 86-years old Jack Lifton said "start with the cemeteries, then check assisted care". Lifton, a former retiree turned consultant, whose clients include Energy Fuels Inc., one of the U.S.’s most ambitious rare earth firms said "anyone in the U.S. with experience is either dead or, like me, very old".
 |
| Jack Lifton |
Separating the 17 rare earth elements can involve dozens of extraction stages and expertise taught at only a handful of universities or acquired through years in industry. Much of that know-how has migrated to China, now the world’s primary employer of specialists.
Some U.S. companies are partnering with universities to recruit students in engineering, metallurgy and chemistry. Others are poaching employees from rivals. At one company in France, a key team of engineers are in their 80s and, like Lifton, have been lured from retirement to help troubleshoot mineral processing plants.
There are great opportunities for young mineral processors in the processing of rare earths and other critical minerals. One young person mentioned in the article is Neil Hogan, a 24-year-old chemical engineer who graduated from Pennsylvania State University this year. Neil was the only person in his class to enter the rare earth industry, recently joining Aclara Resources Inc. to help the Brazilian company develop a processing plant in Louisiana, which will produce refined forms of terbium and dysprosium. He said that the appeal wasn’t financial; he wanted to help rebuild a Western rare earth supply chain, and contribute to an industry still taking shape.
The energy transition the world is counting on runs on critical minerals and there will be plenty of opportunity to network and develop contacts in these areas in Cape Town in November, at Critical Minerals '26 and Process Mineralogy '26.
.JPG)
