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August 24, 2026 - Virginia Tech is one of 14 universities at the forefront of a federal push to expand domestic mining and mineral operations following a $100 million educational investment announced in early August.
On Aug. 7, the White House announced the investment in mining and mineral engineering programs at 14 universities, with the goal of doubling the number of graduates in the field.
The announcement came during a formal meeting at the State Department attended by the president, Department of Energy officials, senior White House staff, university students and professors.
 Mining and Minerals Engineering seniors Ellie Ferguson and Sophia Gwaltney joined Department Head Aaron Noble and university President Tim Sands in representing Virginia Tech at the conference.
The plan for distributing the funds has not been finalized, and Virginia Tech's share of the $100 million has not been determined.
Noble said Virginia Tech graduates about 30 of the roughly 200 mining and minerals students nationwide who earn degrees annually. He estimated the demand for mining professionals is about twice the current number of graduates, aligning with the administration's goal.
The educational investment is part of a broader initiative that includes $2 billion in mining-related projects and companies.
In an interview Wednesday, Noble, Ferguson and Gwaltney said growth in the number of mining and minerals graduates, and in the industry as a whole, does not mean a return to coal mining.
“There's this legacy of coal mining in Southwest Virginia, and certainly there's still some degree of coal mining happening in Southwest Virginia,” Noble said. “That is certainly not what we're committed to educationally. We look more broadly.”
The Trump administration has separately pushed to revive the nation's coal industry, including by easing barriers to coal mining and coal-fired power generation. In April 2025, Trump signed an executive order directing federal agencies to lift barriers to coal mining and promote coal-powered electricity generation.
When looking beyond coal, Noble pointed to titanium mines near Richmond, developing lithium mines in western North Carolina and quartz mines across Virginia's southern border.
“We have this notion of Southwest Virginia being exclusively coal mining, but when you take a step back, you realize we actually mine a lot of different materials in the region that support all kinds of different applications and end uses,” he said.
Noble said mining those minerals and many others is essential to “national and global prosperity,” and that materials pulled from the ground form much of the basis of modern life.
“One of our sayings in this department is, ‘If it's not grown, it's mined,’” Ferguson said.
Sustainable mining
The three said mining can be done sustainably and in ways that differ from the negative impacts often associated with coal mines of the past that still dot the region's landscape.
While acknowledging that mining, as an extractive practice, is inherently nonrenewable, the three said sustainable mining is built around community and stakeholder involvement, reclamation and habitat work, and strong regulations.
The final point differs from actions by the Trump administration, which since 2025 has pursued rollbacks of Environmental Protection Agency regulations governing air and water pollution and other environmental protections.
Still, the Virginia Tech representatives said strong regulations are one reason the United States should be at the forefront of the mining industry.
“There are really heavy regulations, and I think that's a huge portion of why there is a push for American mining,” Gwaltney said. “We know that when it's done here, it's done with proper labor laws, with proper environmental standards, and that when something does go wrong, we are in control over the reclamation efforts.”
Noble agreed, saying, “We have the ingenuity and the legislative and legal framework to allow us to do the best mining.”
While the image that often comes to mind when imagining mining is that of a coal-streaked man with a pickaxe, today's mining operations are highly mechanized and technologically advanced.
“There's a lot of push for automation,” Noble said. “The equipment that's underground is made to keep people safe. It's made to be efficient, and it's very modern in every sense of the word.”
Noble described one mine with a fully underground maintenance facility for the equipment used in the operation, complete with Wi-Fi.
While skilled laborers such as plumbers, welders and pipefitters are still needed in modern mines, Virginia Tech graduates typically go on to work as engineers or operations managers.
Why is mining important?
The three emphasized that materials extracted through mining are part of virtually every aspect of modern life.
“In any room that you find yourself in, look around,” Ferguson said. “You're surrounded by mining. You can't escape it.”
Gwaltney said many people view an extractive process such as mining as either good or bad, but that it requires a more nuanced approach.
“It's just necessary,” she said. “But we're trying to make it better and safer and healthier, and I think that by funding these departments, by giving the resources to the research and to the people, that is how we can continue to mine while also protecting people and the environment.”
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