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Its a little-known fact that Columbia University, in Manhattan, was home to the first mining school in Americathe School of Minesfounded in 1864. For the past three decades, the university’s program has been mothballed. Parts of its curriculum were subsumed into the more fashionable subjects of earth and environmental engineering. But next fall, Columbia University will offer a bachelor of science degree in mining engineering once again. Other schools are barreling down, as well. The University of Texas at El Paso is also relaunching its mining engineering degree, starting in the fall of 2027, after a 60-year hiatus. The University of Texas system is providing $20 million to reestablish the program, which plans to produce up to 100 mining engineers annually. Existing programs at some of the top schools for miningincluding the Colorado School of Mines, the Missouri University of Science and Technology, and Montana Technological Universityare also reporting upticks in enrollment, reversing years of declines. Until the 1970s, most universities had pretty robust programs in mining engineering, says Greeshma Gadikota, professor of earth and environmental engineering at Columbia University, who will also teach in the revived mining program. This rebirth in mining education in the United States is happening for a reason. Its a response to a crisis thats been decades in the making. The underground scene In key measures of mineral wealth and production, the U.S. is failing to keep up. Rising global demand across clean energy, defense, and tech industries has driven prices for critical minerals like copper, silver, and tungsten to record highs. Geopolitical tensions have threatened access to many others. For decades, the U.S. had deprioritized mining and has instead come to rely on rare minerals produced in China. China dominates production of at least 15 critical minerals and mineral groups; it mines about 70% of the worlds rare earth elements and processes about 90% of the global supply. (The U.S. is entirely dependent on China to meet its demand for graphite, an essential component in lithium-ion batteries, for example.) But over the past year, in retaliation for Trumps tariffs, China has banned the export of three rare earth productsgallium, germanium, and antimonyto the U.S. And it has put export restrictions on many others, including ones for which China is the sole supplier, including dysprosium, essential for building superfast computer chips, and samarium, a rare earth metal used in many military applications. Last fall, prices for gallium (used in electronics, semiconductors, and batteries) and germanium (critical to infrared technology used in fighter jets and missiles) hit a 14-year high. Tapping into a domestic supply of rare minerals has become not just an economic imperative for the U.S. but a strategic one. Yet that requires rebuilding a declining workforce. More than half the people currently working in the U.S. mining industryroughly 221,000 workersare expected to retire or switch industries by 2029. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts 400 annual job openings for mining engineers through 2034. That may not sound like a lotafter all, the Bureau of Labor Statistics anticipates about 5,500 annual openings for civil engineering technologists and technicians, and 17,500 openings for electrical and electronics engineers in the same period. But consider that in 2023, only 312 mining engineering degrees were awarded by U.S. universities. That means its a sellers market for new mining gradsa stark contrast to the outlook for computer science graduates and computer engineering majors, who faced 6.1% and 7.5% rates of unemployment, respectively, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. (It’s no wonder Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang says he would study physical science if he were starting out today.) But the ability of the U.S. to mint new mining engineers is limited by the number of schools that still offer mining and mineral engineering programs, which has fallen from 25 in 1982 to about a dozen today. Edgar Mine field session [Photo: Colorado School of Mines] Those programs started shutting down one after the other, because so much of the work was getting shifted abroad,” Columbia University professor Gadikota says. Other countries took advantage of that, and they started building up capabilities. Today, China has more than 38 mineral processing schools and more than 44 mining engineering programs, according to the nonprofit Center for Strategic and International Studies. Chinas largest mineral processing program, at Central South University, alone has 1,000 undergraduates and 500 graduate students preparing for the field. Now, schools and businesses are trying to spread the word that the mining industry has well-paying jobs to filland that mining today is different. Graduates in mining engineering regularly earn $70,000 and up, right out of school. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics, the median annual pay for mining engineers is $101,200. Specific expertise in the extraction of rare earth elements, for example, and a willingness to work in remote locations can boost compensation. A new gold rush for mining engineers From aluminum and antimony to zinc and zirconium, there are currently 60 critical materials on the U.S. Geological Services list, minerals and rare earth elements that are vital to batteries, semiconductors, planes, lasers, medical imaging devices, cancer therapies, cars, electronics, nuclear power plants, and more.&nbs; As defined by the Energy Act of 2020, these materials are essential to the economic or national security of the U.S.; have a supply chain that is vulnerable to disruption; and serve an essential function in the manufacturing of a product, the absence of which would have significant consequences for the economic or national security of the U.S. Many of these materials exist in the U.S., but most of them are still stuck in the ground. Thats starting to change, as big mining companies and startups alike race to develop new domestic sources. MP Materials, a rare earth mining and processing facility on the Nevada-California border, signed a guaranteed-pricing contract in 2025 with the Pentagon and saw its stock surge more than 240% for the year. MIT-founded startup Phoenix Tailings raised $76 million in venture funding last year, supporting the build-out of a next-generation rare earth processing facility in New Hampshire. In December, Ionic Mineral Technologies announced it had discovered rare earth and critical technology metals, including gallium, germanium, cesium, and tungsten, that it says are comparable to Chinas deposits. Global mining giants like Glencore, BHT, and Rio Tinto are also developing critical mineral assets in the U.S. Each of these companies employs its own mining engineersand most of them also contract with other companies that employ them. The growth in critical minerals is creating new kinds of opportunities for young people getting into the industry. And schools are scrambling to revamp curricula to reflect the shifting industry landscape. Kwame Awuah-Offei, who leads the Missouri University of Science and Technologys Department of Mining and Explosives Engineering, says the schools graduates typically fall into three career buckets: construction aggregate materials (a $35 billion-a-year business in the U.S.), mineral mining, and mining services (working for equipment makers, software companies, and others that support the mining industry). Even though U.S. coal mines still employ some 44,000 people, Awuah-Offei says, coal recruiters are having a tough go of it with new grads. There is concern among students that if they want to have a 30- or 40-year career, it’s not in coal. Whether its true or not, the numbers have shrunk quite a bit. Interest in critical minerals is a big factor contributing to larger recent class sizes, Awuah-Offei says. Domestic need for resources is just in the news morehe mentions Trumps talk of invading Greenlandand it drives curiosity on the issue. While undergrad mining engineering enrollment is still small compared with mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, civil engineering, and fast-growing nuclear engineering, it has grown over the past couple of years. Awuah-Offei is confident that graduates will find jobs when they graduatethanks to the new demand in rare metals mining and processing, coupled with very strong job opportunities in the construction materials and aggregate side of the business.” The latter type doesnt pay as much as metal mining jobs, but the attraction is that they tend to be around metro areas. Lifestyle is an important factor for this generation of students, Awuah-Offei says. Even if a job in Bagdad, Arizona”a remote copper mining hubis paying $10,000 more, theyd rather live in Dallas than be in Bagdad. Things come in waves, says Columbia University professor Gadikota. We had a wave around climate. Right now we have a wave around metals and foundational materials. Of course, the two things arent unrelatedwhich might be key to mining engineerings widening appeal. Sustainability and social considerations increasingly define industry practices. Mining meets AI, entrepreneurship, and environmentalism When people see today’s mining tech, they are surprised, Awuah-Offei says. This includes not only massive excavators and tunnel boring machines, but also increasingly common autonomous trucks and robotic equipment. Advances in technology have led to changes in mine design and operation, which in turn have created new challenges that require engineering-based solutions. For example, says Sebnem Düzgün, associate department head of mining engineering at the Colorado School of Mines, one of my students recently analyzed problems with BEV [battery electric vehicle] operations in underground environments. Its highly interconnectedthere’s a societal need for these critical minerals, and mining itself also needs them, to electrify the mines. Sebnem Düzgün [Photo:Colorado School of Mines] Düzgün recently led a recent curriculum update at the school, which included adding classes in things like data science, AI and machine learning, robotics, and autonomous operations. All engineering departments have an industrial advisory committee, she says, and we frequently reflect their requests in our curriculum. Modern mining involves using AI models to analyze geological and satellite data during the exploration phase, deploying predictive analytics to improve mine traffic flow and minimize equipment downtime, and creating digital twins to process real-time sensor data and optimize processes. If you go to the control room of a modern mining processing plant, all you see is big banks of computer screens with someone monitoring data streaming in from sensors,” Awuah-Offei says. “They dont necessarily need to walk out there to see whats going on. Technology has enabled a new breed of mining startups to flourish, which has prompted another change to the traditional curriculum. Mining is mainly governed by large industry, Düzgün says. But as new businesses have emerged, weve started incorporating entrepreneurship into our curriculum, and now some of our graduates are entrepreneurs. Some technology-enabled mining startups are even being funded at levels typically associated with AI companies. In January 2025, KoBold Metals, an AI-powered U.S. mining startup backed by Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, raised a $537 million Series C round. Another part of the mining engineering syllabus is environmental stewardship. To be honest, weve been incorporating the social and environmental aspects of mningthings like mine closure and reclamation issuesinto our curriculum for almost 20 years, Düzgün says. But the industrys handling of these concepts became more pronounced. At Columbia, Gadikota says the mining program had morphed into earth and environmental engineering as the public became more focused on minings environmental footprint. We went so much toward managing environmental impacts that it reached the point where we didn’t even want [mines] in our backyard. Now, the pendulum is swinging back. We are rediscovering and repurposing our mining roots and bringing back all of that knowledge, but not just in the same outdated manner. We need the metals. We also need to clean up the tailingsmaterials left over after ore has been extracted from rockand the emissions, and develop sustainable water systems. We want to be conscious about managing tomorrows liability today, she says. Gadikota oversees a sponsored research agreement, announced in November, between Columbia University and Locksley Resources, which is targeting rare earth elements and antimony (used in energy storage) in California. Students at Columbia will explore approaches including AI-driven ore analysis, innovative electrochemical recovery, and carbon-dioxide-assisted mineral processing to help the company develop sustainable practices that improve upon current methods. If we wanted to build metal recovery capabilities based on technology that exists in other countries, we can certainly do that, Gadikota says. But we know that some of those mining pathways are not as energy-efficient, theyre not as material-efficient. They contribute to a lot of emissions. Then there is the processing side. How do we process the material in a way that allows us to produce not just one product, but multiple co-products? And how can we lower the environmental footprint of doing that? These are all key factors to consider, and that’s why we do what we do. Government spends heavily, but gaps remain Last March, President Trump signed an executive order, Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production, that outlined numerous steps to increase funding and cut red tape for domestic mining and metals processing projects. The government responded: The U.S. Department of Energy announced in August that it would issue nearly $1 billion in funding to advance and scale mining, processing, and manufacturing technologies across critical minerals and materials supply chains. Three months later, the Energy Department’s Office of Fossil Energy announced that it would provide up to $275 million to build U.S. industrial facilities capable of producing valuable minerals from existing industrial and coal byproducts, and $80 million to establish Mine of the Future proving grounds to test next-generation mining technologies. But there hasnt yet been much federal funding specifically earmarked for mining education. We’ve seen an uptick in research funding for faculty to go after, Awuah-Offei says. Traditionally, when theres a lot of funding, universities are more willing to hire people in that area. So that has been good. But apart from programs in some states, like Texas, there hasnt been direct investment in education, necessarily. Introduced in the House of Representatives in March, the Technology Grants to Strengthen Domestic Mining Education Act of 2025 (aka the Mining Schools Act) would establish a grant program to support schools in recruiting and educating future mining professionals, including engineers. It is currently awaiting action by the House Committee on Natural Resources. Most of us support that because it will put direct funding into schools, Awuah-Offei says. Training mining engineers is expensive. You have to have an experimental mine. It’s lab-based and hands-on. Theres little time to waste. We’ll work on cute little mining projects, Gadikota says. But if you want to scale them up and you need a domestically trained workforce to implement and grow them, does that workforce actually exist? The answer to that question is: We are behind, and we are doing everything that we can to develop that talent and get them out again.
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I had to submit my résumé for a role. Then I went through three interviews, with nearly identical questions each time. The problem? The role was for a freelance writing position. Not to become a company employee. I got all the way to the third interview only to learn that the role paid a fraction of my usual rate, even though Id provided my rate up front. Im experienced enough as a solopreneur to know that going through three interviews was a bad sign. The potential client wasnt communicating internally (as confirmed by the fact that my rate had been overlooked). Multiple interviews are incredibly uncommon in my line of work, and indicated to me that the company didnt know how to work with a freelancer. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/11\/work-better-1.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/11\/work-better-mobile-1.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cstrong\u003ESubscribe to Work Better\u003C\/strong\u003E","dek":"Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldn\u0027t suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more, visit \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.workbetter.media\/\u0022\u003Eworkbetter.media\u003C\/a\u003E.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"SIGN UP","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/www.workbetter.media","theme":{"bg":"#f5f5f5","text":"#000000","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#000000","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91457605,"imageMobileId":91457608,"shareable":false,"slug":""}} When youre a solopreneur, bad clients cost you time and money. They also crowd out better opportunities and put a strain on your bandwidth. Client selection is a core business skill. And if youre not in a position to turn down work, you at least need to know how to handle sticky situations when they come up. Red flags during the sales process The best time to spot a problematic client is before you sign anything. Thats when you can decide whether the client will be worth the hassle or not. Here are some of the most common red flags Ive experienced talking with potential clients. Vague project scope. “We’ll figure it out as we go” sounds flexible, but it usually means the client hasn’t thought through what they actually need. That ambiguity becomes your problem once youve signed a contract, and it can be hard to rein in. Requests for free work or unpaid test projects. There are very, very few scenarios in which I believe a solopreneur should do any unpaid work. I’ve seen unscrupulous companies use submitted test work without providing any compensationessentially, free labor for them. If a client needs to evaluate your skills, point them to your portfolio or testimonials. Or negotiate a paid project. Unrealistic expectations on timeline or rate. If a potential client lowballs you, the relationship will always be lopsided if you accept. Many solopreneurs juggle multiple clients, so saying yes to low-paying work or expedited timelines can impact your other clients. Simple script to use: “My rates start at $XX. If that doesn’t work for your budget, I’d be happy to recommend someone else who might be a better fit.” Red flags during the engagement Sometimes you have no idea that a client will be a nightmare until after you start working with them. But before you know it, some red flags tell you that the client relationship isnt going well. Scope creep. You identify the scope of the project and put it into the contract, but the client continues to come back to you with additional requests. If you accommodate the client, this erodes your effective rate when you “donate” extra timeand requests can add up, fast. Simple script to use: “This wasn’t included in our agreement, but I’m happy to do that for $XX additional amount, and it will take YY additional time.” Framing it this way clarifies that additional work has additional costs. Poor communication. Some clients expect instant replies, treating you like an employee who should be available whenever they need something. Or they take forever to reply, and you cant move forward. In both scenarios, you need to be proactive. Let clients know your expected response time (like you will respond within 24 hours). Make sure they are aware that a delayed response on their end will have a negative impact on the project. Delayed payments or ghosting on invoices. These are the clearest signals that a client relationship isn’t working. Drop that client, fast. You shouldnt have to chase a client for money thats owed to you. Protecting your business Every solopreneur says yes to an imperfect opportunity or has engagements with difficult clients. Its part of the business. You dont have to say no based on red flags, but you do need standardsand the language to enforce them. The earlier you learn to spot red flags and respond to them, the more options you’ll have. {"blockType":"mv-promo-block","data":{"imageDesktopUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/11\/work-better-1.png","imageMobileUrl":"https:\/\/images.fastcompany.com\/image\/upload\/f_webp,q_auto,c_fit\/wp-cms-2\/2025\/11\/work-better-mobile-1.png","eyebrow":"","headline":"\u003Cstrong\u003ESubscribe to Work Better\u003C\/strong\u003E","dek":"Thoughts on the future of work, career pivots, and why work shouldn\u0027t suck, by Anna Burgess Yang. To learn more, visit \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.workbetter.media\/\u0022\u003Eworkbetter.media\u003C\/a\u003E.","subhed":"","description":"","ctaText":"SIGN UP","ctaUrl":"https:\/\/www.workbetter.media","theme":{"bg":"#f5f5f5","text":"#000000","eyebrow":"#9aa2aa","subhed":"#ffffff","buttonBg":"#000000","buttonHoverBg":"#3b3f46","buttonText":"#ffffff"},"imageDesktopId":91457605,"imageMobileId":91457608,"shareable":false,"slug":""}}
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Americans go to great lengths to ensure they are financially set for their later years. But if you’re asking Elon Musk, you really needn’t bother. According to the world’s richest man, whose net worth is estimated at well over $700 billion, saving for retirement will soon be obsolete. Musk aired this view on a recent episode of the Moonshots With Peter Diamandis podcast. Musk let listeners in on his vision of our financial future, a world where technology, specifically artificial intelligence, creates such an abundance of resources that anyone can buy anything they want. The entrepreneur said that within just a few years, we will live in a world marked by a great surplus, where better medical care than anyone has today” will be “available for everyone within five years.” He also said that there will be no scarcity of goods and services” and you’ll be able to learn anything you want. Musk continued, explaining that there will be such a surplus that life will no longer require people to save in order to ensure they are taken care of later on. One side recommendation I have is: Dont worry about squirreling money away for retirement in 10 or 20 years. It wont matter, he said, adding that he believes “saving for retirement will be irrelevant” and that the future will bring abundance.” Overall, Musk’s view of the future seems decidedly optimistic about AI. He talked about the power of AI to break barriers and using it to harness the sun’s energy. And he said he believes the “future of currency” will be measured not in money, but in “wattage.” But he also acknowledged that during what are bound to be years full of change, the road to the future he envisions will be “bumpy” and filled with obstacles. Musk said he doesn’t just foresee “universal high income,” but also major “social unrest” as the result of so much change in a short period of time. The prediction seems eerily similar to one made by John Maynard Keynes, known as the founder of modern macroeconomics, in 1930. In his essay, “Economic Possibilities for Our Grandchildren,” the economist wrote that by 2030, technology would enable workers to adopt a 15-hour workweek. At the time, the workweek was estimated to be about 50 hours. In one sense, Keynes was correct: The average number of hours fell in the years following the prediction, as the 40-hour workweek was established soon after. However, today full-time work hours hover at about 8.4 hours a day or 42.5 hours a week, per the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. While many of Keyness predictions about technology proved to be correct, such as how vastly technology has reshaped certain industries, working hours have yet to fall as drastically as he predicted. At the moment, Musks comments are hard to swallow, given that many Americans struggle with basic expenses like childcare, let alone saving for retirement. According to a 2025 report from the National Council on Aging, most older adults don’t have enough money to financially survive “a financial shock” triggered by a death, the need for long-term care, or illness. “Eighty percent of those 60 and older have little to no assets and would not be able to weather a financial shock without falling into poverty,” the report said. Researchers added: “The future of aging in America will likely be defined by an ever-widening inequality in both financial status and mortality, deepening the divide between the majority of older Americans (the 80%) and the top 20%.” Musk did say there would be bumps along the road to utopia.
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