Canada and U.S. Invest in Mining Talent - The Critical Minerals Race Moves From Rocks to People

Highlights

• The U.S. committed over $180 million to mining education, including $100 million through the Department of Energy targeting mining schools.
• Canada launched its Mining and Minerals Workforce Alliance with $81 million across six sectors to address critical minerals talent gaps.
• The true bottleneck is not mining graduates but specialists in rare earth separation, solvent extraction, and magnet manufacturing with hands-on plant experience.
• China's decades of tacit, plant-level processing expertise cannot be replicated quickly through financing or academic programs alone.
• Investors should treat workforce depth as a core due-diligence metric alongside ore grade, permitting, and offtake agreements.