$3 Billion for Mining: The West’s Critical Minerals Wake-Up Call

On August 7th US President Donald Trump announced a mining/critical minerals  investment package of roughly $3 billion. The announcement came during a mining industry round-table at the State Department. Trump said the administration was backing a series of projects intended to expand U.S. production of critical minerals.

Trump’s investment in mining and critical minerals is about much more than securing new sources of ore. It is about reducing the West’s dependence on China for processing the minerals it needs.

For decades, China has built a dominant position in the critical minerals supply chain, particularly in processing, separation and refining. This means that even when minerals are mined elsewhere, they may still depend on Chinese processing capacity before they can be turned into materials suitable for advanced manufacturing, energy technologies and defence applications. That dependence has become a strategic vulnerability.

The US investment signals a growing determination to bring critical-mineral processing capacity back to the West and develop more resilient supply chains. Crucially, this requires investment not just in mines, but in the technologies, pilot plants, research programmes and skilled people needed to process increasingly complex resources economically.

The emphasis on universities and research is therefore particularly significant. More than $180 million is being directed towards mining education and workforce development, including support for U.S. mining schools to train the next generation of engineers, geologists, technicians and other specialists needed to expand domestic capacity. This reflects a wider concern about the shortage of skilled workers across the mining sector, at a time when the U.S. is seeking to bring more critical mineral production and processing onshore. Alongside workforce development, other programmes are supporting research into critical mineral processing, recycling and recovery from unconventional resources. This is important because securing supply is not simply a question of finding new deposits: it also depends on developing more efficient ways to extract, separate and recover minerals from existing ores, waste streams and alternative sources, helping to reduce reliance on overseas processing and build more resilient domestic supply chains.

This is directly relevant to MEI’s Critical Minerals ’26. The conference will focus on the technologies needed to process and recycle critical minerals from primary and secondary resources - precisely the capabilities that the West needs to develop if it is to build supply chains that are less dependent on China.

The strategic objective is becoming increasingly clear: the West needs not only its own mines, but its own processing expertise and capacity. The coming years could therefore see a major shift in where critical minerals are processed; from a supply chain heavily centred on China towards more geographically diverse capacity in the US, Europe and other allied nations.

For the minerals processing community, this represents both a major challenge and a major opportunity. The technologies developed today could determine where the critical minerals supply chains of tomorrow are built.

That makes the forthcoming agenda at Critical Minerals ’26 in Cape Town especially timely.

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Developments in Heap Leaching as a Technology Choice for Value Extraction from Primary and Secondary Resources

Heap leaching is part of the group of “percolation leaching” processes that selectively remove metal values from an ore into a suitable aqueous leaching agent that seeps through a pile or mass of the ore. It has become well-established technology choice for the treatment of low-grade copper and gold ores and is also practiced for uranium ores and REE recovery from ion adsorption clays. Various other applications (Zn, Ni, PGMs) have been explored but not reached commercial significance as yet. 

Apart from the different chemistries and mineralogies, all these applications operate on very similar principles, which will be laid out in some detail in a keynote from Prof. Jochen Petersen, of the University of Cape Town, at Hydrometallurgy '27.

Selection of heap leaching as process technology is primarily driven by its ability to extract value from low-grade materials, as the need for high capital and operating expenditures, especially for intensive comminution processes to produce a concentrate material for further processing, is avoided. However, the relatively long time required to recover the metal value from larger particles, with overall poorer metal extraction achieved, imposes certain economic penalties which have resulted in heap leaching remaining limited to low-grade ores.

Nonetheless, ever-increasing energy costs and awareness of the associated carbon footprint have recently led to a re-evaluation of the technology for primary ores. At the same time the drive towards resource efficiency and the attainment of circular economies for many metals has also opened significant opportunities for the heap leaching of tailings and waste materials and thus a re-evaluation of the technology. Some examples of these developments will be discussed in Jochen's presentation.

Jochen holds a PhD in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town, where he is now Full Professor after a research career spanning close on 30 years in hydrometallurgy. His research covers leaching and recovery of Cu, Ni, Zn, PGMs, Au and REEs from both primary minerals and secondary resources such as e-waste. His key field of expertise is heap leaching.

Jochen has co-authored over 150 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers and supervised 15 PhDs and 60 MScs to graduation. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the journal Hydrometallurgy 2011-2021 and held a prestigious South African Research Chair 2018-2022.

Jochen at Biohydrometallurgy '10 in Cape Town after
being appointed the new co-editor of Hydrometallurgy.
 He is with Dean Eastbury, his publishing manager at Elsevier

Hydrometallurgy27
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Close encounters with a wild dolphin

August is always a quieter time, particularly in the Northern Hemisphere, where many families are away on holiday. So, today's blog is something a little different from the usual- a look back at a magical couple of months in Cornwall almost half a century ago.

This summer has been unusually hot, and thousands of visitors have taken to the sea. Many have joined wildlife safari trips along the Cornish coast, where the relatively warm waters, influenced by the Gulf Stream, attract an abundance of marine life. Seals are a familiar sight, while basking sharks, the world's second-largest fish, are regular seasonal visitors. Dolphins, however, are always the favourites, delighting passengers and photographers alike.

Dolphins are usually seen in pods, but in early 1978 a solitary male bottlenose dolphin made Falmouth his home. Soon affectionately known by locals as "Beaky", he became something of a celebrity, enchanting residents and visitors alike. For a remarkable period, he chose the harbour and surrounding waters as his territory, creating unforgettable encounters for those lucky enough to meet him. 

The safe waters of the harbour were a favoured location for Camborne School of Mines (CSM) divers to undertake their open water training and it must have been an unforgettable experience for them to share the water with a 350 kg dolphin.

Novice CSM diver and Beaky in Falmouth Harbour

One novice CSM diver, however, probably wished he could forget his first meeting with Beaky.

As Diving Officer for both the CSM and Falmouth branches of the British Sub-Aqua Club, I spent many Sunday mornings supervising students on their first shallow open-water dives. One such dive took place in the rocky gullies off Pendennis Headland, at the mouth of the Fal Estuary.

Beaky and CSM divers off Pendennis Headland

Keeping a close eye on the stream of bubbles from a novice and his experienced Falmouth club buddy, I noticed a familiar dorsal fin approaching. Moments later the fin disappeared beneath the surface, only to be replaced by an explosion of bubbles and the student bursting from the water shouting, "Shark! Shark!"

Still visibly shaken, he later explained what had happened. He had felt a firm nudge in the middle of his back and, turning round, found himself face to face with a large dark shape, a towering dorsal fin and two beady eyes. It was hardly surprising that his imagination ran wild, this was only two years after the release of the movie Jaws!

For the more experienced divers, deeper dives were made in Falmouth Bay from the 24-foot Pisces, skippered by local fisherman Ken Dunstan. Ken had recently been one of the four-man team to make the first deep dive on the wreck of the Rinovia (see post of 22 February 2024).

Beaky soon became familiar with the sound of Pisces and regularly accompanied us on our dives. He would even join us on deep wreck dives for five minutes or so before returning to the surface for air, only to reappear and continue swimming alongside us. 

Word of these remarkable encounters inevitably spread, and in early 1978 we were contacted by the BBC's Blue Peter, then at the height of its popularity as the world's longest-running children's television programme. The production team wanted to see whether Beaky might feature in the programme, so they sent a young researcher to spend a day aboard Pisces in search of Cornwall's famous dolphin.

The search proved remarkably short. Just minutes after leaving Falmouth Harbour, Beaky appeared. We dropped anchor and slipped into the water, where he immediately treated us to one of his wonderful displays, much to the delight of our visitor.

Bottlenose dolphins can reach speeds of up to 25 mph (40 km/h), and one of Beaky's favourite antics was as exhilarating as it was startling. He would charge towards you at full speed before suddenly slamming on the brakes just a few feet away, sending a wall of water crashing over your head. The first time it happened it was impossible not to flinch,until you realised he seemed to take as much pleasure in the surprise as we did.

At one point Ken and his seven-year-old daughter, Nicola, entered the water together. Beaky gently approached them before allowing Nicola to hold his dorsal fin as he slowly carried her in a small circle. It was one of those magical moments that none of us present would ever forget.

Nicola is introduced to Beaky....

Before holding on for a memorable ride

It was February, however, and before long the cold drove us back towards the boat. Beaky, though, clearly hadn't finished playing.

He disappeared beneath the surface and reappeared a minute later with the anchor line draped around his beak. Then, to everyone's amusement, he gently towed Pisces just beyond our reach. After several more minutes of his playful antics, we eventually managed to climb aboard. Our Blue Peter researcher was completely captivated by both Beaky and her first visit to Cornwall, promising that the full production team would soon be returning.

Towing the boat out of reach!

I wish there was a happy end to this story, but that was the last we ever saw of Beaky. Shortly after this episode a series of major winter storms hit the area and Beaky was never seen again. No one knows what became of him. He may simply have moved on, died naturally, or perhaps fallen victim to human activity. There has never been any definitive explanation.

Whatever his fate, those few magical months remain one of my most treasured memories of life beneath the waters of Cornwall. Everyone who encountered Beaky carried away a story to tell, and nearly fifty years later, he is still remembered with great affection by those fortunate enough to have shared his extraordinary world.

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Congratulations Mari Lundström on the award of the Faraday Medal

The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) Electrochemistry Interest Group Faraday Medal is one of the most prestigious international awards in electrochemistry. It is presented annually by the RSC to recognise outstanding mid-career electrochemists working outside the UK and Ireland.

The 2026 Faraday Medal has been awarded to Mari Lundström, Professor of Hydrometallurgy at Aalto University, Finland. The award will be presented this month at Electrochem 2026 in York, UK, where she will also deliver the Faraday Medal Lecture.

Mari (2nd left) at an IOM3 conference in Cambridge in 2015 with
Barry and Barbara Wills, Stephen Neethling and Nick Wilshaw

Professor Lundström is internationally recognised for her pioneering work in electrochemical and hydrometallurgical processes for the sustainable recovery of critical and precious metals. Her research focuses on:

• Electrochemical extraction and refining of metals.
• Recycling of lithium-ion batteries and electronic waste.
• Recovery of critical raw materials such as lithium, cobalt, nickel, copper, and precious metals.
• Designing low-carbon, circular-economy processes for metal production.
• Bridging fundamental electrochemistry with industrial-scale implementation.

Her work has become particularly important as demand for battery materials has grown rapidly due to electric vehicles and renewable energy technologies. We are hoping that Mari might present her work at Hydrometallurgy '27 in Cape Town next year and that we might also see her at Critical Minerals '26 in November.

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