Nevada & The Renewed Necessity for Mining with Amanda Hilton

Show Summary: This podcast examines the transformation of the global critical minerals supply chain at a time when resilience, innovation, and policy leadership are more urgent than ever. From mineral extraction and refinement, to government action and private sector innovation, each episode will bring you closer to the people and ideas shaping the future of resource security.

Episode Summary: In this episode, Alberto Rosende is joined by Amanda Hilton, President of the Nevada Mining Association, to break down why Nevada has become ground zero for America’s critical minerals future. From gold and lithium to tungsten and antimony, they explore how Nevada’s world-leading regulatory model, deep mineral reserves, and skilled workforce are positioning the state as a solution to U.S. supply-chain vulnerability. The conversation explores why domestic mining has become a national, economic, and military necessity.

Guest: Amanda Hilton is a 4th-generation Nevadan, with more than two decades of experience at the Robinson Mine, where she served for six years as General Manager. She  served on the board of the Nevada Mining Association, including as Chair from 2021–2022, building a reputation as a consensus-driven and forward-looking leader. She was featured in the “Pioneering the Field: Women in Mining” exhibit at the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum and now serves as the 13th leader of the Nevada Mining Association, advancing responsible mining critical to the state’s future.

Host: Alberto Rosende is the President and CEO of M2i Global, Inc., a company dedicated to strengthening global resilience through the development of secure, transparent, and sustainable critical mineral supply chains. With decades of experience leading in the public and private sectors, Rosende brings a unique combination of strategic vision, operational discipline, and global perspective to the forefront of the minerals and energy sectors. His leadership embodies M2i Global's mission to build a resilient future grounded in collaboration, sustainability, and economic strength.

Transcript: https://bit.ly/46MxCJR

Fraser Institute Annual Survey of Mining Companies: https://bit.ly/4kxtDXs

Nevada Copper Processing Study: https://bit.ly/4tAKIE0

SRCE Information: https://bit.ly/3O2O829

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in The Minerals and Metals Initiative podcast are solely those of the hosts and guests. They are provided for discussion and informational purposes only and do not represent the official policy, position, or recommendations of M2i Global, Inc. Any statements made should be understood as personal opinions, not factual claims, and should not be relied upon as investment, legal, or professional advice. While efforts are made to ensure accuracy, M2i Global makes no guarantees regarding completeness or reliability of the content.

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Mining is no longer viewed solely as an economic driver for our country. Mining is now viewed as a necessity a necessity for healthcare, a necessity for infrastructure, and a necessity for the Department of War. Hello everyone, and welcome back. I'm Alberto Rosende, your host and CEO of M2i Global - a critical minerals supply chain company, and this is the Minerals Metals Initiative, a podcast exploring the transformation of the critical minerals supply chain as we race for global resilience, from mineral extraction and refinement to policy and innovation. Join us each episode, as we examine a different aspect of the urgent push to modernize, diversify and de-risk the world's critical minerals supply chain. Nevada is the leader in gold, silver and lithium production domestically and home to the world's largest mining complex. It also has large mineral reserves, years of mining expertise and mining industry friendly policies, which has led it to become a key player in the US solution to our current critical minerals crisis, and to talk with us about Nevada's rising importance in the US is quest for minerals. We welcome Amanda Hilton as our guest today. Amanda is currently the president of the Nevada mining Association, and was formerly the general manager of the Robinson Mine, one of Nevada's largest and oldest mines, where they sourced copper, gold and molybdenum. She was featured in the pioneering The Field Women in Mining exhibit at the National Mining Hall of Fame and Museum in Leadville, Colorado, and has worked as a miner in her home state of Nevada for the last two decades. Amanda, thank you for joining us today. I look forward to learning more about you and Nevada. Thank you so much for the invitation. And before we get started and get deep into Nevada and mining, give us a little bit of background as to how you wound up getting to where you are today and where you came from before. Well, I'd be happy to. I am a 20 year miner. I worked at the Robinson Mine, located outside of Ely, Nevada for nearly 20 years. I started at that mine site as a junior accountant. I have my CPA license. I started there as a junior accountant, thinking that I may work at the mine site for a couple of years. It didn't take long. It only took a matter of months for me to realize that really mining had my heart, and the men and women who work in that industry, in our industry, are who I wanted to be championing and who I wanted to provide support to. After about year 12 our chief operating officer sat down with me. His name is Steve Holmes, and he asked me what it is that I wanted to do with my career. At that point, I was the administration manager at the site. I was the first female manager there. And in our conversation at the Round Table in my office, I got every piece of courage that I had, and I told him that I would like to be the site's first female general manager. And this was an unconventional leap for me, because typically, general managers are have an engineering background. So I knew that I had a lot of work to do to become a qualified candidate. And what Steve did was incredible. He created a development path for me so that I could have the experiences that I needed to become a viable candidate for the general manager role. My next step in my career was to go lead the the truck shop, which is where all of the maintenance on the mobile equipment is conducted. And so I got to meet and get to know the, 99 men and one woman who worked in the truck shop. And I got to see the importance of the work that they do every day. And that's really where I, had that was quite a pivotal shift in my career. And after my time leading the truck shop, I then, was appointed general manager at the mine site. And that's the position that I served for six and a half years. It was such an honor for me to be named president of the Nevada mining Association after that experience, because I really loved advocating for the 600 miners and their families at the Robinson mine. And now I have the privilege and the opportunity of advocating for the 30,000 miners and their families in the state of Nevada. That's what an amazing story. And I mean, when you think about, you know, when you were probably in college, it was probably the last thing on your mind. When did you realize that you wanted to to move away from accounting and get your hands dirty, so to speak, in the actual industry? Well, the Robinson mine is located just outside of Ely. It's about ten miles outside of town, and I graduated from high school in Ely. I graduated at White Pine High School. So I was a point in my career. I'd done some time at public accounting, and I lived, out of the Ely area for about ten years, and I was ready to come home. So I accepted the job at the mine site as a way for me to be able to move home for a little while. Little did I know what an important move that was going to be for my career. I find that story, and I know that I was reading an article where they they were interviewing you, and you said that while you were living outside of Ely, it seemed like all your vacation time was spent going back to Ely, and you wanted to be able to travel the world. And so you decided, if I live in Italy, then I'll be able to travel somewhere else, right? That's exactly right. That's excellent. So the Nevada mining Association, as you say, you advocate for 30,000 members in their families, which is very significant in the state of Nevada. Can you tell me a little bit about, you know, your initial relationship with Nevada mining Association and then how it started to kind of percolate that maybe that that was your next move in your career? So I had been on the board of the NVM for six and a half years, and I also got to be the chair of the board of directors. And when I was the chair, I really got a bird's eye, bird's eye view of how the association operated, the importance of the association, and just the the value that the association brings to its members. About two years after I had been the chair of the board, the position came open and I, I debated back and forth, I doubted myself, I didn't know if this would be the right move for me or if I was even a qualified candidate, but I took the advice of several of my mentors who always said, it doesn't matter if you're 100% qualified, you need to go for it and put your express your interest. And that's what I did. I had to step back from the board of directors because I was still on officially on the board. But then I was applying for the president's role, and I took that leap of faith. I had a rigorous interview process. There were several other very qualified candidates, and I was put through the paces to make sure that I would be the right person to fill that role. And I'm just thrilled that I've had that opportunity. I'm approaching the two year mark this January. Wow. Well, congratulations on an incredible career and incredible journey that you've been on, and thanks for sharing that with us. Now, I'd like to kind of turn my focus on Nevada and mining and minerals and all of that that, that we're here to talk about. So, what can you tell me about Nevada? I know that I read all sorts of stuff, of Nevada. You know, it's it's one of the leading global investment sites for mining and minerals. I know that there's an awful lot of, of minerals, that, that are available, based on the 54 or the 60 minerals and that are on the 2025 list and so forth. So why don't you take us kind of through a journey through Nevada mining the history and why it's so significant and then move it forward into why is it so important today? Well, the state of Nevada became a state because of the silver discoveries in the Comstock Lode. And the money from those silver discoveries was used to fund the union during the Civil War. And so our state's inception was we came from mining and mining. Ever since that time has been a pivotal part of our economy and a critical, contributor to the global economic environment. Today, the state of Nevada has over 100 operating mines. We're producing 20 different minerals. We produce 70% of the country's gold. And we are home to the only operating lithium mine. So the economic impacts of the mining industry on the state of Nevada are significant. And just as importantly, are the minerals that come from the ground in Nevada that contribute to the worldwide economy. Super important. And I know that mining in, in, you know, not in Nevada, but mining in other parts of the country, sometimes has a, a connotation that's not as the most appealing industry to have in your state, but everybody enjoys the fruits of what you pull out of the ground, right? Whether it's gold or whether it's critical minerals in their phones and cars and everything else. So how how is the regulatory environment today in Nevada? And I know that Nevada has looked at, in terms of how it manages its regulatory compliance, but it takes care of its communities as well. And I know that as the president of the Nevada mining Association, you sit at the center of all the legislative things that go on at the state level, right. level, right. Nevada really does it best when it comes to regulation, when it comes to permitting and when it comes to reclamation activities. The Fraser Institute is a think tank located in Canada, and every year they issue a report about, attractiveness for the mining industry. In 2025, Nevada ranked number one in investment attractiveness in the United States and number two in the world. And the primary reason that Nevada ranks so high is of the robust regulations that we have in our state. The regulations are understood. They're trusted and they're respected. and they're respected. Governmental agencies from around the world come to the state of Nevada so they can see how we do it, because they want to model their own regulations. After the Nevada model when it comes to reclamation. Nevada has a very robust, laws, regulations and expectations. And our operators are always wanting to exceed those robust regulations. those robust regulations. The state of Nevada currently holds $4.5 billion in bonding for reclamation. And I want to explain that a little bit, because before any exploration drill hole goes in the ground, a company has to post a bond, even though they're going to be in a very small area, five acres or less. They have to post a bond for any disturbance. And before any operation puts its first shovel in the ground or builds its first road, they have to post a bond that looks, into the future for what their impact is expected to be, and they have to post a bond for the reclamation costs. for the reclamation costs. And there is a model that is used. It's called the SRCE model. And that model, details out all of the cost elements expected in reclamation. And our operators and our explorers have to post that money before they do any work. So Nevada really has the best system in place. We're proud of that system, and we're happy to share it with other governmental entities from around the world. from around the world. I imagine that, the federal government has looked a lot at what Nevada is doing, and I would like to see or I'd like to know what kind of influence or what kind of things have you been talking to, either regulators or legislators at the federal level, in terms of what Nevada can do to be exported, or what Nevada has done that can be exported to other other territories or other states? Well, one of the best examples for that is the permitting process with the Bureau of Land Management, the Nevada model that's used by our regulators is being replicated across the country because it's robust, it's well understood. And while permitting still takes a very long time. It's one of the quicker, BLM state offices in the country. So the BLM does a phenomenal job of meeting all of the the milestones and achieving all of the scientific studies that need to be done in the state of Nevada. And that is what's being replicated. The Nevada mining Association has very good relationships with, most of our federal delegation in Washington. And we also work hard to keep strong communication channels between the Forest Service, the BLM, Fish and Wildlife and other federal regulatory entities. Well, I think that, obviously the Bureau of Land Management controls an awful lot of land all throughout the West, and particularly in Nevada as well. And there's an awful lot of abandoned mines on those lands with that probably have tailings that can be reprocessed. So has Nevada taken a step to look at how to get access, to those tailings and reprocessing that would facilitate, being able to exploit the tailings that are already there? There are several entities within the state of Nevada that are doing research to characterize, waste rock facilities or, tailings facilities throughout the state. Desert Research Institute has some projects going on. University of Nevada, Reno has some projects going on. And there are several companies that are also doing work to better understand what sort of opportunities exist. We have regular conversations with the Nevada Division of Minerals to also identify potential areas where there's mineralization that could be reprocessed in Nevada. There's permitting at the federal level, and there's also permitting at the state level. So both of those permitting processes are being evaluated to see how, what opportunities exist on the permitting side to reprocess some of those facilities and then clean up any, historical mine sites. Some of the challenges that are faced in being able to go back into a mine that's been previously operating, it's either abandoned or in some other carrier status. There's always, usually, always, almost always some sort of an environmental impact on that land, whether it's water or land or both. And a lot of times miners would carry the risk of having to absorb that, that material. And then there's some Good Samaritan laws that are trying to take a look at how the. So how's Nevada progressing along that to, to to encourage or incentivize miners to go back in and take a look at the characterization of those tailings and potentially begin to pull out some critical minerals. I'm not familiar with any particular, regulations that have been modified at this point that would, relax some of those restrictions, because right now, if someone touches a historical mine site that has a reclamation liability that hasn't been taken care of, they then own that liability. So I'm not aware of anything that's been done to modify that at this point. But on another topic you just spoke up is the Good Samaritan, project that was approved by Congress in 2024, I believe. So that was, approved at the federal level. And I am not an expert on this, but the high level is if a site has been identified that, Was before the reclamation. The disturbance was before the reclamation laws were put into place. Then an entity can go in and clean that up, get that to the standards that it's held to today, and they won't face liability in the future. Unfortunately, I am not, an expert on the nuances of that, but that's the high level overview. And the state of Nevada has identified a project and has applied through, through the administrator for one of the projects in Nevada to be considered on that. The list of the first 15 in the United States. Oh, great. So hopefully we'll see something from that soon. As far as how it begins to move forward and and what it teaches us in moving forward with the reprocessing of the tailings. The I know that there's there's a lot of, discussion, let's put it that way, of how to protect, the new entity going into a previously disturbed site and being able to limit the liabilities as long as they don't make it worse. Right. There's a lot of dialog on that, but I know that it's far from being legislated at this point in any state or at the federal level. I was interested in, in asking you about something that you mentioned during your opening remarks at the environmental committee meeting, and you talked about your visit to, DC, and you sat with the Department of Defense or Department of War, because of their interest in seeking out critical minerals, supply chains and stability in those critical minerals availability. And I was wondering if you could comment on on what your dialog was about, what the visit was about, and some of the things that you saw there. Be glad to. In the month of September, my conversations took a dramatic turn, and in that month, I was introduced to several individuals from the Department of War and started to really have conversations about what their mineral needs are. And it's such an interesting And it's such an interesting time in the mining industry today, because mining is no longer viewed solely as an economic driver for our country, mining is now viewed as a necessity a necessity for health care and necessity for infrastructure, and a necessity for the Department of War. for the Department of War. So the first individuals I met with gave us a list of the minerals that were their highest priority to be, have a secure domestic supply chain. domestic supply chain. The US government for the last few decades has relied on producers and processors overseas to provide the minerals needed for our military, and that is no longer acceptable. And in those conversations, it was identified that several of the highest priority minerals for the Department of War were found in Nevada. And it's a great opportunity for the state of Nevada to be able to solve part of the military's problems. of the military's problems. So we identified those minerals, we identified, where the projects are that have those minerals in the ground. And then one of the things that we need to continue talking more and more about is processing of those minerals. of those minerals. Nevada has an incredible mineral wealth in the ground. But what we are lacking and what our country is lacking is the production facilities for those minerals. So many of those minerals today have to be shipped overseas for processing, and we are giving up those minerals. Then when we ship those, right. So the conversations that I had, with military officials, when I met with them at the Pentagon and then in other meetings throughout the coming week, have been not only does Nevada have minerals you're looking for, but we can have conversations about how we can bring processing of these minerals to our state as well. to our state as well. And these are minerals such as tungsten, vanadium, boron, antimony. The Nevada mining Association has members who have projects that have all of those minerals today, and those are minerals that the military is looking for. is looking for. Just last week in Reno, I had a follow up meeting with some of those individuals, and we talked further about what sort of support could be given to Nevada companies to help accelerate the production of those mines and the construction of processing facilities. I think that that's a real weak link in the chain of the supply chain that we currently experience, especially with countries in Asia that, have a real monopoly on the production piece of it. And we know that, there was a time there where we were producing a lot of minerals, but a lot of those processing, platforms left, they were closed and shut down. And we need to really bring those back. In terms of regulatory requirements on processing. Have you had a chance to look at those since your dialog began with the Department of Defense and how to best approach those in the state of Nevada? those in the state of Nevada? The Nevada mining Association, in conjunction with the Nevada Division of Minerals, and some of our member companies, including Pathfinder, Tonopah and Kim, produced a copper processing report. And I'd be glad to send you a link for that, that you could link in with your materials with that report, it identifies the opportunity for the state of Nevada to build a copper smelter. It also identifies what the permitting constraints would be, what the risks are. And it also gives the potential locations for siting of such a facility. And that's a document that I have been able to share with in all of the meetings I've been having with the governmental officials, and we've been doing a bit of a media campaign about that. Just last week, I filmed a show on Vegas PBS to talk about the need to bring the production of these minerals domestically. That is just one mineral that's copper. And the permitting of a copper, smelter would be a significant undertaking. The more we talk about it, the more we have the opportunity to work on streamlining that permitting process. There would be a robust permitting process for developing any, processing facility for any of the minerals. We're kind of capped on our ability to process or smelt copper in the United States. And so that's a real detriment to for us to be able to gain that independence that we seek, especially as the grid is getting, so, congested, really. And the demand to expand the grid and distribution of energy becomes important. And copper is at the center of all that. I wanted to bring you back to the Nevada mining Association. So we've talked about potential midstream processing capabilities in Nevada. We've talked about the mineral availability in Nevada. We talked about how the Department of War is looking to see how we can accelerate either sourcing the material or production of the material. So Nevada mining Association has an awful lot of irons in the fire. So if you were to lay out what your priorities are, let's say just for the 2026 year, what would how do you see your year working out as far as what you think now? Something can happen, like happened in September where you have to pivot. But what do you think your plans are for 2026? So I'll start off with the Nevada mining Association's mission statement. Our mission is to unite, inform, advocate and serve as the public voice of Nevada's modern mining industry. So all of the activities that we do support our mission statement. So all of our committees also have goals that support our mission statement. We will continue with a lot of the good work we're doing today. We are going to be hosting teacher workshops through our education committee. Our goal is to have nearly 200 Nevada educators go to these workshops. From there, they'll be exposed to curriculum that fits within the science standards of the state, and they'll get to tour mine sites. We are going to be bringing legislators and legislative candidates on mine tours. It is an election year in Nevada, and we are going to have significant turnover in the legislature. So we have a great opportunity to bring new candidates to mine sites and be talking to them about the importance of the mining industry in Nevada, not only from an economic perspective, but also from the perspective of having more independence of our country. When it comes to mineral production. And we're going to be continuing all of the advocacy work we do at all levels within the state government. The state government is our number one priority. That's where most of our efforts go. But as the opportunity arises, we will be advocating for our member companies at the federal level as well. Excellent. Now, you mentioned one of the committees, which is workforce development and one of the big I wouldn't say hurdles, but one of the big challenges is always the workforce behind building the companies and the initiatives and being able to see them come to life. So I know that workforce is something that's really, really significant. Could you talk a little bit about the different things that you've seen and that you've undertaken under the Nevada mining Association? You already mentioned a few, but to really expand that workforce. And then if you could tell me, do you believe that there's sufficient workforce, if you're able to get the development aspects in place to be able to support the expansion, or do you have to import labor from other states? Well, our Workforce Development Committee this year is focused on filling the expected gap in the future. A high percentage of the employees in the mining industry today are going to be meeting retirement age in the next five years. And with that tsunami of retirements, we're going to be losing a lot of experience as well. So the Nevada mining Association's approach has been industry career awareness. We want to get the word out far and wide about the wide variety of careers available within our industry. We've produced five different videos this year. We're doing a social media video campaign, and we are going to be continuing that campaign through 2026. We'll be filming more videos of miners in the field telling their story, and we will be getting that out there from there. We are encouraging people to apply for jobs within the mining industry. And so we have if you go to the careers webpage at the Nevada mining Association website, so Nevada mining walk and click on careers, you can see a list of all of our member companies with career opportunities available. So we are really working on getting people more informed about the careers available in the industry. We're working on getting into classrooms. Talk about those careers. And that's one of the highlights of our teacher workshops, is to make sure the teachers are aware of all of the careers in the industry, so they can be talking to their students about it. I think it's fascinating when you look at the industry, everybody just thinks you have to go out there, put holes in the ground and dig stuff out of the ground. But as you said, you know, you were actually one of your first positions outside of accounting was in the maintenance shop. And boy, I'll tell you, your maintenance isn't working. Nothing's moving. Right. And so you need electricians and you need welders, and you need everything across the gamut of all the trades, not just focused on the stem piece, either at the engineer level or a metallurgy level or whatever, but you need across the gap. So the infantry, I mean, the industry is quite varied in the demands that it has for for the types of trades that it offers potential candidates. On one thing to note is, as our operations are transitioning to more and more autonomous equipment, the demand for IT professionals and network professionals is really skyrocketing because our operations are becoming more and more dependent on their wireless networks to keep their equipment going. So our mine sites need IT professionals, they need welders, they need mechanics, they need air professionals. They need communication specialists. They need purchasers. There is such a wide range of careers available in the industry. And I often tell people it doesn't matter if you have a GED or a PhD. The mining industry has a job opportunity for you. Absolutely. I was in preparing for this podcast. I was reading some articles that you were highlighted in, and they were asking you specifically about your Covid experience, and you talked about the autonomous drills that you had in place. You want to talk to that a little bit just to show the variety of of the things that make you pivot while you're working. Right. So while I was at the Robinson mine, we commissioned the first autonomous drill in the state of Nevada, and that was an epic rock drill. And there were a lot of lessons learned during that process because we were bringing in new technology. We were having a significant culture, a significant cultural shift, all while we were trying to manage through the Covid experience. And so, I'm really proud that the site was able to commission that drill. And now they have several autonomous drills operating. I was able to go on a tour there this August and see their control center and see how well everything is operating. We have other operators within the state who are transitioning a high percentage of their haul truck fleet to autonomous equipment. And so as our industry continues to evolve, we're adopting more and more technology. And one of the things that's most important to me with that new technology is we're getting, the team members who work at that site out of the pit. We're putting them in an environment where it's not. It's very safe. They can be five miles away from the pit. Some of them could even be operating equipment in Las Vegas for a mine site up off of the I-80 corridor. But there's a lot of, conversation about our jobs going away with the adoption of technology. And what we're finding is that the jobs are transitioning. They are transitioning from sitting in the cab of that truck to more IT based and network infrastructure based. I think that the workforce development piece becomes a real challenge because you're not just going to become, you know, a welder, but you might need to be able to adapt to the technological application in the future of how welding is accomplished. Well, I want to thank you for the time, Amanda. This was great. Is there any question that I we didn't get a chance to talk about that you really wanted to bring to the table? I always appreciate the opportunity to talk about the robust mining industry in the state of Nevada, and what a bright future this industry has. So thank you so much for the opportunity for letting me visit your podcast today. No, thank you so much. Nevada is so significant to our nation. It's a it's a national security. And and that and an economic security perspective that we're looking at when we see what Nevada can bring to the table and is bringing to the table. And so I think the future, as you said earlier, is very bright for Nevada and the mining association and the job that you're doing to make sure that everyone is aware. And the increased, I guess, situational awareness, really, of what Nevada can bring to the table. So thank you very much for your time. I wish you the very best. I know that we'll be seeing you very soon and have a great holiday. Thank you very much. And to everyone who listened or watched this episode, thank you for joining us. Be sure to follow us on Spotify and Apple Podcasts to keep enjoying the Minerals and Metals initiative.