Michigan Tech wins a $1 million Energy Department prize to train more mining and critical minerals engineers

HOUGHTON, Mich. — Michigan Technological University will get $1 million from the U.S. Department of Energy to expand training for the mining, materials and critical minerals workers the country says it is running short of, the department announced Oct. 26.

Michigan Tech is one of 16 universities nationwide picked for the department’s PROSPECT Planning Prize, which splits $16 million evenly among the winners. It is the only Michigan school on the list. The university says it also has the only accredited bachelor’s degree program in mining engineering in the state.

PROSPECT stands for Providing Opportunities for Specialized Education in Critical Technologies. The prize comes from the Energy Department’s Office of Critical Minerals and Energy Innovation and is run by the National Laboratory of the Rockies through the federal American-Made prize program. It is part of a broader PROSPECT initiative of up to $100 million.

Why Washington is paying for it. The department says enrollment in American mining programs has fallen about 45% since 2015 and that the country will need roughly 6,000 new mining engineers over the next decade. The program’s near-term goal is to double the number of graduates with degrees tied to mining, minerals and related supply chains within two years. The department said the winners showed strong plans to raise the number of graduates and credentialed workers ready for those jobs in that window.

“For decades, we have allowed our mining and critical minerals workforce to decline and our domestic supply chains of critical minerals to weaken,” Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson said in the department’s announcement. The department tied the awards to the Trump administration’s push to rebuild domestic supply chains and reduce reliance on foreign adversaries for critical minerals.

Back to its roots. Michigan Tech opened in 1885 as the Michigan Mining School, created by the state to train engineers to meet the country’s demand for copper, said Michelle Scherer, dean of the College of Engineering. She said the school now wants to use that history to help meet PROSPECT’s goal of doubling the critical minerals workforce. The university named three departments as the core of the effort: Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences, Materials Science and Engineering, and Chemical Engineering.

Who else won. The other winners are Colorado School of Mines, Columbia University, Missouri University of Science and Technology, Montana Technological University, New Mexico Tech, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, Penn State, the University of Texas at El Paso, the University of Utah, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the University of Arizona, the University of Kentucky, the University of Nevada, Reno, Virginia Tech and West Virginia University.

What isn’t known yet. Neither the department nor the university said how Michigan Tech will spend the $1 million, how many additional students it hopes to enroll, or when a later round of PROSPECT money might be offered. The department’s prize page says the longer-term program is meant to support new curricula, teaching tools, financial aid and other incentives.

The award adds to a busy month of outside money for the Houghton campus, which won an Army contract extension for its power-systems lab and $274,414 to send West Point Foundry artifacts home earlier in October.

Sources:
Michigan Technological University, “DOE Selects Michigan Tech for $1M Critical Minerals Workforce Prize” (news release; only Michigan winner, accredited mining engineering degree, Scherer statement, departments), https://www.mtu.edu/news/2026/10/doe-selects-michigan-tech-for-1m-critical-minerals-workforce-prize.html
U.S. Department of Energy, “Energy Department Awards $16 Million for University Initiatives that Rebuild America’s Critical Minerals Workforce,” Oct. 26, 2026 (winners, Robertson quote, 6,000 engineers, $100 million initiative), https://www.energy.gov/cmei/articles/energy-department-awards-16-million-university-initiatives-rebuild-americas-critical
U.S. Department of Energy, PROSPECT program page (45% enrollment decline since 2015, two-year goal, long-term aims), https://www.energy.gov/cmei/prospect-providing-opportunities-specialized-education-critical-technologies
Photo: Jcvertin, “Michigan Tech’s Campus.jpg,” June 28, 2017, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/), color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Michigan_Tech%27s_Campus.jpg

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Tags: Houghton · Michigan Tech · Mining · Critical Minerals · U.S. Department of Energy · Copper Country