The University of Texas System (UT System) board of regents chairman Kevin Eltife announced a $20 million investment in The University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) to reestablish its mining engineering program – the state’s only university ME program to address critical industry workforce challenges.
UTEP, founded in 1913 as the State School of Mines and Metallurgy, will launch the new program in the fall 2027 semester. It is being designed to address the growing demand for mining engineers in Texas and across the U.S., while positioning El Paso and the Paso del Norte Region as a national leader in this critical industry.
Last year, U.S. universities graduated only 312 mining engineers. There will be an estimated average of 500 job openings annually over the next 10 years. The restart of the mining engineering program at UTEP will help close this gap, with the program projected to produce up to 100 mining engineers each year once fully established.
No universities in Texas currently offer this program.
James B. Milliken, chancellor of the UT System, underscored the strategic significance of this initiative.
“UTEP can increase the number of mining engineers for America by 30%,” Milliken said. “That will have a significant impact on our nation’s ability to mine minerals for energy, electronics, national security and many technologies essential to our future. There is no place better positioned to lead in this area than UTEP, home of the Miners.”
UTEP has a deep track record of industry collaboration, top-tier engineering education, and the ability to recruit bilingual talent for the mining industry that is global in scope.
The University of Texas at El Paso is located at the westernmost tip of Texas, where three states and two countries converge along the Rio Grande.
Source: utsystem.edu