Trump Announces $180 Million to Rebuild America’s Mining Workforce — and the Numbers Show Why
- $180,000,000 in total federal grants for mining education and workforce development announced at the roundtable — The White House, Aug. 7, 2026
- 14 mining schools nationwide set to receive funding through the Department of Energy's new PROSPECT initiative — U.S. Department of Energy
- ~6,000 new mining engineers the Department of Energy says the U.S. needs over the next decade — U.S. Department of Energy
- <600 students enrolled in mining engineering programs nationally in 2023, down from roughly 1,500 eight years earlier — Washington Examiner, Aug. 7, 2026
President Trump stood before roughly 200 mining executives and educators at the U.S. State Department on Friday, August 7, and announced more than $180 million in federal grants aimed at a specific, narrow problem: America is running out of people who know how to mine.
The White House billed the “American Mining Industry Roundtable” as the largest gathering of mining-industry leaders and a sitting president in over 120 years. CEOs from Rio Tinto, BHP, Freeport-McMoRan, MP Materials, USA Rare Earth, and Energy Fuels sat alongside university presidents, including UTEP President Heather Wilson, to hear an administration case built on a simple number: the U.S. is 100% import-reliant on 16 of the 60 minerals the government deems critical to national security.
The dollar figures are real and traceable to primary sources — a DOE workforce initiative, three separate university grants from the Department of War, and a same-day set of EXIM Bank loans that outlets have, at times, blurred together with the education money. They are three distinct pots. Here is what actually adds up.
The roundtable, held at roughly 3:00 p.m. ET, brought together the administration's economic and national-security cabinet in one room: Secretary of State Marco Rubio (R admin), whose department hosted the event; Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum (R admin); Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick (R admin); and Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright (R admin). DOE Assistant Secretary Audrey Robertson (R admin), who leads the department's Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation, also spoke, alongside National Mining Association CEO Rich Nolan.
Trump framed the spending in industrial-policy terms rather than education-policy terms. “Critical minerals are the raw materials of American strength that power everything from advanced weaponry to automobiles, and we want these essential products to be mined, refined, and made right here in the USA,” he told the room. Nolan, representing the industry, called the day “yet another example of how this administration is taking a comprehensive approach to mineral and energy security.”
The largest single piece is a Department of Energy program called PROSPECT — Providing Opportunities for Specialized Education in Critical Technologies. DOE issued a Notice of Intent on August 7 for up to $100,000,000 in funding spread across 14 mining schools nationwide, with an explicit goal: double the number of graduates earning mining- and minerals-related degrees within two years.
The Department of War — the renamed Department of Defense — is funding three specific university programs directly. The Colorado School of Mines receives $32,700,000 for a Critical Minerals Innovation & Commercialization Hub. The South Dakota School of Mines receives $25,000,000 to lead a Critical Minerals Merit Scholars Consortium, partnered with Missouri University of Science and Technology and the University of Kentucky. And Johns Hopkins University receives $23,600,000 for a program focused on critical-minerals recycling. Add those three grants to the DOE's $100 million PROSPECT pool and the total comes to $181,300,000 — the figure the administration rounded to “$180 million.”
One of the 14 DOE-funded schools is new: the University of Texas at El Paso will launch a mining engineering program in 2027 — the first mining engineering program in Texas. UTEP expects to graduate roughly 100 students a year once the program is running. UTEP’s share of the DOE pool has not been broken out as a standalone dollar figure in any of the administration’s materials, so no specific number is attached to it here. “It’ll be the only mining engineering school in Texas, but it will be making a significant contribution to the nation,” President Heather Wilson said.
President Trump on Friday announced more than $180 million in grants to boost educational and trade programs for the mining industry, part of a bid to increase critical mineral production.
The administration's case rests on a demographic cliff more than an ideological argument. “Half of our current mining workforce is set to retire within the next three years,” Trump told the roundtable. Behind him stands a pipeline that has been shrinking for nearly a decade: mining engineering enrollment nationwide fell from roughly 1,500 students eight years ago to fewer than 600 in 2023. Wilson put a sharper point on it — fewer than 200 students graduated with mining degrees nationwide last year, across every school in the country combined.
DOE's own estimate is that the country needs roughly 6,000 new mining engineers over the next decade, plus additional graduates in materials science, mineral processing, and recycling — fields that feed the same supply chains. “A strong domestic mining and minerals workforce is essential to powering America's future and strengthening our national security,” Secretary Chris Wright (R admin) said.
The national-security framing points at one country in particular. The administration wants to reduce U.S. reliance on China for critical minerals — lithium, silicon, graphite, rare earths, tantalum, niobium, scandium, and boron among them — used in everything from weapons systems to electric-vehicle batteries. With the U.S. fully import-reliant on 16 of 60 minerals the government classifies as critical to national security, the workforce gap and the supply-chain gap are, in the administration's telling, the same problem.
“Critical minerals are the raw materials of American strength that power everything from advanced weaponry to automobiles, and we want these essential products to be mined, refined, and made right here in the USA.”
President Donald Trump, American Mining Industry Roundtable, Aug. 7, 2026
The education grants were not the only money announced at the roundtable, and the two figures should not be merged. Separately, the Export-Import Bank of the United States announced $58,000,000 in loans to three companies: $25,000,000 to Westwater Resources for a graphite project in Alabama, $25,000,000 to Global Advanced Metals for a tantalum and niobium project in Pennsylvania, and $8,000,000 to 5E Advanced Materials for a boron project in California.
Beyond the EXIM loans, the Pentagon and other agencies announced additional mineral-sector deals the same day. Outlets have reported different totals for that broader tranche — figures in the range of $2 billion to $3 billion depending on the source and what is counted — and this page does not assert a single number for it. What is clear and independently confirmed is the $180 million (more precisely, $181,300,000) in education and workforce grants, and the separate $58,000,000 in EXIM financing. Those are the two figures with primary-source documentation behind them.
News via @CBSNews: Trump to announce $180 million in grants to boost educational and trade programs for the mining industry, part of a bid to increase critical mineral production.
President Trump announced $181,300,000 in mining-education and workforce grants on August 7 — $100,000,000 through the Department of Energy's new PROSPECT initiative across 14 schools, plus $32,700,000 to Colorado School of Mines, $25,000,000 to South Dakota School of Mines, and $23,600,000 to Johns Hopkins from the Department of War. UTEP will open Texas's first mining engineering program in 2027. The rationale is a hard number: half the current mining workforce retires within three years, while enrollment in mining engineering has fallen from roughly 1,500 students to fewer than 600. A separate $58,000,000 in EXIM Bank loans, and billions more in other same-day mineral deals reported elsewhere, are real but distinct from the education total.
