EMIP

RE-STEM: Rail Enabled Sustainable Transportation of Essential Minerals

Introduction

North America's essential minerals industry is at an inflection point. 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: full lifecycle accounting of environmental and economic impacts, and transportation infrastructure that leverages rail's efficiency for heavy mineral movements.

RE-STEM Stakeholders

Collaboration among stakeholders is fundamental to advancing economically and environmentally sustainable and practical growth opportunities for:

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

IntelliConference Series

RE-STEM IntelliConference Series begin with the most important dialogues for advancing North America’s essential mineral supply chains. The IntelliConferences have been conceived with the input of key essential mineral stakeholders.

• Foster Community Engagement and Benefit-Sharing - Create frameworks that ensure communities and advocacy groups participate in decision-making and receive tangible benefits from mining operations.
• Streamline Permitting and Regulatory Frameworks - Establish expedited permitting procedures without compromising environmental standards, reducing approval timelines from 7-10 years to 2-3 years.
• Establish Integrated Supply Chain Infrastructure - Create integrated transportation networks prioritizing rail transport, emphasizing multimodal capabilities to efficiently move materials from mines to processors to manufacturers.
• Implement Full Lifecycle Accounting - Adopt comprehensive accounting practices that capture all environmental, social, and economic impacts from exploration through reclamation.
• Expand Domestic Processing Capabilities - Build processing facilities within the US to reduce dependence on foreign refinement and create complete mineral value chains domestically.
• Create Public-Private Investment Partnerships - Develop funding mechanisms that share risk between government and industry to support capital-intensive mining projects and processing facilities.
• Advance Circular Economy Systems - Implement recycling and reclamation technologies to recover essential minerals from waste streams and end-of-life products.