U.S. Assistant Secretary of Energy Audrey Robertson announced a new $16 million program to support mining education during a visit Monday to the Albemarle lithium mine in Kings Mountain.
Albemarle finished draining the mining pit last year and is still awaiting state and local permits.
The grants are part of the Trump administration’s effort to expand domestic mining, processing and manufacturing of critical minerals.
“We graduated 163 mining engineers in this country. China graduated 3,000,” Robertson said. “They have 16 times the number of schools that we have in this country, and we have to change that.”
The funding will be available to the 14 accredited mining schools in the United States. Virginia Tech is the closest accredited mining school to the Kings Mountain site.
