$3M in federal funds will go to University of Arizona mineral processing plant near Sahuarita

The federal government is providing $3 million to support a new mineral processing plant at the University of Arizona. The facility will be connected to an underground mine near the town of Sahuarita.

The facility will serve as a training lab, with students, faculty, and industry partners using both traditional and experimental methods to crush rocks and separate materials.

The federal funding comes after the school also received an $850,000 award from the Arizona Legislature.

Kray Luxbacher is the executive director of the School of Mining Engineering & Mineral Resources.

“It'll prove a fertile training ground for those engineers, and it should bring research to the University of Arizona, allowing us to train metallurgical engineers at the graduate level," she said.

Luxbacher says the goals of the facility are aligned to train students and increase mineral production in the U.S.

“If you look at the United States right now, we're graduating only about 200 mining engineers every year across the country, and we estimate that we need between 400 and 600 a year just to fill industry needs," she said.