Essential Mineral Logistics

Open inquiries › EMIP: Essential Minerals Industrial Planning

InquiryRound 1of 2Round closes TBD

1 · Inquiry→2 · Convergence→3 · Commitment

Core question

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

TBD responsesTBD participating stakeholdersLast synthesis TBD

Respond to Round 1 How participation works

Background statement

North American mineral supply chains 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 striking 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.

Round One: Assessing production and marketplace logistics

Round One: Assessing production and marketplace logisticsOpen for response

Open for response. Producers, carriers, processors, and economic developers each see a different part of this.

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

Round Two: Redesigning production and marketplace logistics

Round Two: Redesigning production and marketplace logisticsNot yet open

Opens once the Round One picture is complete enough to design against.

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

Related inquiries in this series

• Alignment — which minerals are essential, and in what volumes
• Environmental — full lifecycle impacts and community alignment
• Regulatory Excellence
• Capitalization

If you move minerals, you know something this inquiry needs. Volumes, routes, bottlenecks, a facility that should have been sited elsewhere. Any of it is a complete Round One response.

Respond to Round 1