America urgently needs more young people to work in mines | Opinion
By 2030, Gen Z will be 30 percent of the American workforce. This tech-savvy generation has strong ideas about the places and cultures in which it wants to work. And one of the recurring opinions heard from Gen Zers is the longing to get out from behind the desk, to find a place where collaboration is key and where the work is impactful. Gen Z, here’s an idea for you: American mining.
Mining needs you. Mining needs your skillset and energy, and it may be exactly what you’re looking for, even if you don’t yet realize it.
The opportunity is extraordinary. By 2029, with a tsunami of retirements on the horizon, fully half of the nation’s mining workforce—some 221,000 workers—needs to be replaced. This great changeover is coming just as demand for mined materials is poised to soar.
From smart phones to semiconductors, data centers to solar panels, and electric vehicles, the foundational technologies of tomorrow are remarkably mineral-intensive. Reinvesting in and modernizing the nation’s infrastructure—as well global urbanization and the ongoing fight to reduce global poverty—are all driving incredible new mineral demand.