Construction is set to begin next month on the $240 million Energy and Minerals Research Facility that will jointly house researchers from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and Colorado School of Mines.
Site preparation is already underway on the Mines campus in advance of an official groundbreaking ceremony this fall, the university said.
The 190,000-square-foot building will be occupied by about 250 USGS researchers, 68 Mines researchers and 150 Mines students working to expand upon the two institutions’ partnership and collaborative research.
Funding for the building comes from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Act. U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland visited Mines in February 2022 to announce the decision to locate the facility on campus.
“Mines is excited to move forward with the construction of the Energy and Minerals Research Facility on our campus,” Kirsten Volpi, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Mines said in a statement.
“Together with USGS, we have a one-of-a-kind opportunity to create, and support a thriving intellectual hub that can fundamentally transform the applied geosciences,” she said.
“Once complete, this collaborative facility will be one of the world’s top geoscience research centers in terms of combined capabilities, expertise and analytical facilities – and it will be housed right here on the Mines campus, where our students can contribute to the latest in critical mineral and energy research.”
The USGS will be moving its Geology, Geophysics and Geochemistry Science Center and Central Energy Resources Science Center into the building from their current location in the Denver Federal Center.
Construction on the Energy and Minerals Research Facility is expected to be completed in Fall 2026.