EMIP: Essential Minerals Industrial Planning

Introduction

Reshoring, reindustrialization, and population growth are driving unprecedented demand for continental mineral production. The industry can meet this moment by integrating environmental stewardship with economic opportunity from mine to market—making efficiency and sustainability a competitive advantage. This requires whole systems planning that accounts for full lifecycle environmental and economic impacts. It also requires transportation infrastructure that leverages rail's efficiency for heavy mineral movements. This Essential Minerals Industrial Planning convenes stakeholders to plan entire mineral supply chains, including:

• Essential mineral companies;
• Mineral supply and service companies;
• Rail, truck, barge, and ocean carriers, and;
• The industries and communities they serve.

The Essential Minerals IntelliConferences

Previously, rational idea generation and problem-solving concerning mineral production, use, and logistics have been almost impossible. Existing forums and methods for stakeholder engagement rely on competitive debate at best, creating barriers to honest communication and consensus-building. A new way for stakeholders to engage is needed.

Essential Minerals Industrial Planning provides the forum this industry has lacked. The IntelliConference Series brings together mineral producers, supply and service companies, transportation providers, and affected communities to solve shared challenges through collaboration rather than competition.

Essential Minerals Alignment IntelliConference

Background Statement:

The key to progress beyond long-standing mining conflicts is establishing a shared understanding of what truly qualifies as "essential minerals. Citizens, environmental advocates, and their elected leaders will rally around a realistic essential minerals surge, if conducted consciously and respectfully of their concerns and well-being.

Core Question:

Which minerals are essential to support North America's decarbonization, electrification, and reindustrialization?

Round One: Determining Essential Minerals

1. What factors do we apply to determining which minerals are “essential?”
2. What factors do we apply to determine how much of each mineral we need and want?
3. What volumes of mineral supply are needed to support the clean energy transition?
4. What essential minerals are required to support North America's reshoring and reindustrialization?
5. What are the current volumes of each essential mineral supply?
6. What are the current locations of each essential mineral supply?
7. Which minerals have been determined to have a limited supply globally and therefore need to be conserved or addressed in some way?
8. Where do we need additional essential minerals and at what volumes?

Essential Minerals Environmental IntelliConference

Background Statement

Mineral extraction and processing require heavy industrial activity that affects natural environments and community quality of life. Balancing economic necessity with environmental stewardship requires systematic analysis of where and how we produce essential minerals. Mineral producers benefit from shorter, less contentious permitting timelines. Communities benefit from more thoughtful siting and operational practices that minimize impacts.

Core Question:

What are the full environmental and community impacts of mineral production at each step in the supply chain, and where does reducing consumption offer viable impact reduction?

Round One: Assessing Environmental Impact

1. What environmental concerns do we want to address in how minerals are mined?
2. What environmental concerns do we want to address in how minerals are processed?
3. What environmental concerns do we want to address in how minerals are used and recycled?
4. How do we best assess the environmental impacts of each step in each mineral's supply chain?
5. What are the opportunities for more sustainable production of each essential mineral?
6. What factors have to be addressed for mineral companies to use Best Available Technology throughout the life of the mine?
7. Which minerals have been determined to have a limited supply globally and therefore need to be conserved or addressed in some way?
8. When harmful environmental impacts are deemed unavoidable for a supply chain activity, how do we mitigate them?
9. Which minerals are candidates for reduced production due to disproportionate environmental harm from extraction or use?
10. What has to happen to accommodate reducing the consumption of individual minerals when deemed necessary?

Round Two: Aligning with Communities

1. What community concerns must be effectively addressed?
2. How can potential health risks to communities be mitigated?
3. What steps can be taken to minimize or eliminate aesthetic degradation?
4. How can communities maintain their sense of "place attachment?"
5. What approaches enable citizens to accurately assess risk?
6. How can mining companies relate productively with communities and community leaders?
   1. How can mineral companies increase openness and transparency?
   2. What approaches build community support for responsible mining operations?
   3. What steps must be taken to communicate anticipated environmental impacts with transparency and trust?
   4. How can mining companies and community leaders agree on development implications and responsibilities?
   5. How can mining companies and community leaders develop a "Community Benefits Agreement?"
   6. What decision-making protocols have been used effectively?
7. What steps can mitigate citizens' concerns around mine and facility closures?

Essential Mineral Logistics IntelliConference

Background:

Our current mineral supply chains in North America are inefficient, reducing profitability and sustainability, because they have been developed as independent projects with little coordination among the different stages. For an industry that requires moving large volumes of heavy materials to and from mines, processing plants, and manufacturing facilities, it is shocking how much of this movement relies on trucks. In Nevada, where mining is the second-largest industry, less than 4% of these materials are transported by rail, and less than a quarter of one percent move by rail between in-state mines and processing facilities.

Core Question:

What end-to-end mineral systems can stakeholders envision that maximize efficiency and profitability through strategic facility placement and intelligent material movement? 

Round One: Assessing Production and Marketplace Logistics

1. For which minerals are we aiming to improve logistics?
2. What volume and location data on the relevant mineral production is available and helpful to our thinking?
3. What volume and location data on the relevant mineral consumption is available and helpful to our thinking?
4. What level of GIS mapping of the facilities and data would be helpful?
5. What are the volumes and locations of each essential mineral supply chain component for production, processing, and consumption?
6. What share of mineral transportation moves by truck versus rail, and what are the volumes?
7. What logistics services are provided to the components of the essential minerals supply chains?
   1. What are the gaps and shortcomings of these services?
8. What concerns for the transportation of minerals, ores, and products must be addressed?
9. What new mining, production, and processing locations are in construction or on the drawing board?
10. What role can location play, both of individual mines and facilities, and their relation to each other, in creating efficient mineral supply chains?
11. What areas of the market for sourcing or distributing minerals are challenging to access due to logistics dynamics?
12. What industrial growth opportunities from re-shoring and reindustrialization need specific transportation improvements?
13. What market expansion opportunities would benefit from logistics improvements?
14. Which import opportunities need new logistics approaches?
15. Which export opportunities need new logistics approaches?

Round Two: Redesigning Production and Marketplace Logistics

1. How can we address the needed transportation logistics improvements?

Essential Minerals Regulatory Excellence IntelliConference

Background Statement

Regulations and permitting processes have evolved incrementally over decades, often without adequate coordination among public and private stakeholders. The result is a framework that can impede both environmental protection and legitimate industrial development. Smarter, more collaborative approaches to regulation can better serve public interests while enabling responsible mineral production.

Core Question:

Which regulations governing essential mineral production are outdated, redundant, or counterproductive, and how can they be improved or replaced to better protect public safety while enabling responsible development?

Round One: Policy and Regulation

1. Which federal laws regulate mining?
2. Which federal agencies might be enrolled in participating and supporting this initiative?
3. Which state and local agencies might be enrolled in participating and supporting this initiative?
4. What are the concerns of the government agencies that interact with the mineral industry?
5. What policy and regulatory issues are essential mineral companies concerned with?
6. What policy solutions will support the development of increased processing capacity?
7. What industry practices do regulatory agencies seek to strengthen?
8. What antitrust and other laws and regulations must be amended to accommodate more robust collaboration with and among the private sector?
9. What regulations governing essential mineral supply chains need to be improved, replaced, or eliminated, and how?
10. How can permitting processes be streamlined while maintaining environmental and safety protections?

Essential Minerals Capitalization IntelliConference

Background:

New supply chain efficiencies, improved relations with communities and government, and a clear path to growth create new opportunities for mineral businesses to expand their operations. These improvements create systematic investment opportunities that can attract substantial private capital.

Core Question:

How can whole-systems improvements in essential mineral supply chains unlock investment capital for infrastructure, operations, and growth?

Round One: Current State & Barriers

1. What barriers currently prevent adequate capital investment in essential mineral supply chains?
2. How do Wall Street and private equity investors currently view the mineral industry?
3. What specific risk factors make mineral projects difficult to finance under current conditions?

Round Two: Investor Requirements & Perspectives

1. What return profiles, timelines, and risk parameters do different types of investors require?
2. What ESG criteria do institutional investors apply to mineral sector investments?
3. What level of transparency and data do investors need to commit capital?

Round Three: Capital Needs by Type

1. What are the distinct capital needs for mining operations versus processing facilities versus transportation infrastructure?
2. Which elements of the essential minerals supply chain need equity investment versus debt financing?
3. What infrastructure investments require public-private partnerships or government support?
4. What role can rail infrastructure investment play in enabling mineral supply chain efficiency?

Round Four: Opportunity Assessment

1. What commercial and economic development opportunities emerge from integrated mineral supply chain planning?
2. What opportunities for expanded investment does whole-systems redesign generate?
3. How do improved community relations and streamlined permitting affect project bankability?
4. What new market opportunities justify capital deployment in mineral supply chains?

Round Five: Risk Mitigation & Returns

1. How does the whole-systems approach reduce investment risk compared to isolated projects?
2. What mechanisms can ensure reliable returns for infrastructure investors?
3. What exit strategies and liquidity options exist for different types of mineral sector investments?

Round Six: Measurement & Execution

1. What goals, measures, and structures are needed to support the capitalization of these opportunities?
2. What financial modeling and projection tools would help investors evaluate systematic mineral supply chain investments?
3. How can stakeholders create investment-grade project documentation that meets institutional capital requirements?