Research

The Payne Institute at Colorado School of Mines Launches a new Research Project with The Rockefeller Foundation to Accelerate Rural Electrification in Zambia 6/10/2026

The Payne Institute at Colorado School of Mines Launches a new Research Project with The Rockefeller Foundation to Accelerate Rural Electrification in Zambia

The Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines is pleased to announce a new research project, supported by The Rockefeller Foundation. This twelve-month project will evaluate the role of artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) as a critical “base-load” demand driver to improve the commercial viability of rural mini-grids in Zambia in order to deliver reliable, affordable electricity to underserved communities in Zambia. May 10, 2026.

The Critical Minerals Trap Behind Directed-Energy Weapons 6/4/26

The Critical Minerals Trap Behind Directed-Energy Weapons

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, Macdonald Amoah, and Senior Research Fellow Jahara Matisek write about how the Pentagon’s most promising answer to the munitions crisis requires materials controlled by the adversary it is designed to deter. Directed energy weapons (DEWs), high-energy lasers (HELs), and high-power microwaves (HPMs) that promise speed-of-light engagement and costs per shot measured in dollars are marketed as the solution to the broken economics of modern air defense. June 4, 2026.

Colorado School of Mines and ElementUSA awarded $67M by DOE for construction of rare earth processing plant 6/2/2026

Colorado School of Mines and ElementUSA awarded $67M by DOE for construction of rare earth processing plant

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Elizabeth Holley unites an interdisciplinary team to advance the recovery of critical minerals from mine waste, from site selection to implementation. This work is aimed at strengthening domestic mineral supply chains while addressing challenges including waste characterization and recovery processes as well as the environmental, economic and societal dimensions of production.  June 2, 2026.  

Geochemical monitoring for carbon capture and storage projects: Quantifying risk through statistical methods 5/24/2026

Geochemical monitoring for carbon capture and storage projects: Quantifying risk through statistical methods

Payne Institute Geothermal and Low Carbon Technologies Program Manager Anna Littlefield, Alexis Navarre-Sitchler, and Joel Moore write about how carbon capture and storage (CCS) offers a practical approach for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  The research analyzes publicly available, long-term (more than 3 years) geochemical datasets, focusing on alkalinity, to evaluate statistical methods for assessing geochemical anomalies. May 24, 2026.

Colorado School of Mines launches research center on PFAS destruction technologies 5/6/2026

Colorado School of Mines launches research center on PFAS destruction technologies

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Christopher Higgins has received a funding for a new $7 million national research center at the Colorado School of Mines, the PFAS Remedial Technology Engineering Center – the PFAS RiTE Center, that aims to fill that information void and help move promising PFAS destruction technologies from the lab to the communities that need them most.  May 6, 2026.

Colorado School of Mines launches $7M research center to evaluate PFAS destruction technologies 5/6/2026

Colorado School of Mines launches $7M research center to evaluate PFAS destruction technologies

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Christopher Higgins has received a funding for a new $7 million national research center led by Colorado School of Mines that aims to fill that information void and help move promising PFAS destruction technologies from the lab to the communities that need them most.  May 6, 2026.

Climate Change Is Altering When Water Is Available, Study Finds 5/1/2026

Climate Change Is Altering When Water Is Available, Study Finds

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Steven Smith and Adrienne Marshall research is featured in this article about how climate change is not only altering how much water flows through rivers, but also when that water is available. When the water is flowing from snow fields to rivers is an often-overlooked variable that has significant implications for water users across the US. May 1, 2026.

University to open innovation hub following facility purchase 4/13/2026

University to open innovation hub following facility purchase

Colorado School of Mines has purchased an over 50,000-square-foot facility in Golden where the university plans to open an innovation hub aimed at strengthening domestic critical minerals supply chains.  The university’s new space will bring together academic programs, policy expertise from the Payne Institute for Public Policy, and a network of alumni and industry partners.   April 13, 2026.

Colorado Is Emerging As An Energy Innovation Hub 4/12/2026

Colorado Is Emerging As An Energy Innovation Hub

Colorado School of Mines has long been admired for its work in the energy industry through top-ranked programs in geology, mining engineering, petroleum engineering, materials science, chemical engineering, and others.  It has also led training in cross-disciplinary areas with the Payne Institute for Public Policy and a new Energy and Minerals Research Facility expected to open next year in partnership with the US Geological Survey.  April 12, 2026.  

Colorado School of Mines to open innovation hub to tackle critical minerals supply chain challenges 4/10/2026

Colorado School of Mines to open innovation hub to tackle critical minerals supply chain challenges

Colorado School of Mines is opening a 50,000-square-foot facility in Golden to support university-industry-government-startup partnerships that drive innovation and accelerate commercialization, strengthening domestic critical minerals supply chains across the full value chain — from resource development and manufacturing to recycling and workforce development.  Including a deep policy expertise provided by the Payne Institute for Public Policy.  April 10, 2026.

Mines Energy Research Magazine 4/6/2026

Mines Energy Research Magazine

The Payne Institute is featured in the Energy Issue of the Mines Research Magazine which highlights how Mines stands at the center of the energy conversation. We integrate education, research and industry partnerships to spur innovation and prepare adaptable, forward-thinking talent to lead what’s next in the domestic and international energy workforce.  April 6, 2026.

Kharg Island Refinery VIIRS Nightfire Temporal Profiles 4/1/2026

Kharg Island Refinery VIIRS Nightfire Temporal Profiles

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Director Christopher Elvidge writes about how the behaviour of the flares at three refineries on Kharg Island. Two out of three were affect by the war which started on February 28. One site began to have gaps in detections, with only five in the past month. Another site exhibits a large increase in the source area of the flares. April 1, 2026.

Peter Aaen named Dean of Energy and Materials Programs 3/5/2026

Peter Aaen named Dean of Energy and Materials Programs

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Peter Aaen has been named Dean of Energy and Materials Programs at Colorado School of Mines. Aaen joined Mines in 2019 to lead the Electrical Engineering Department. He began the appointment as Energy and Materials dean Dec. 1 after serving as interim dean since May.  March 5, 2026.

Conflict monitoring with VIIRS Nightfire: the war in Ukraine 3/2/2026

Conflict monitoring with VIIRS Nightfire: the war in Ukraine

Merlijn I. Dingemanse, Earth Observation Group Researcher Associate Mikhail Zhizhin and Daniele Cerra write about how leveraging the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite’s Nightfire product, we extract signals of conflict across Ukraine, tracking the status of heavy industry, delineating the frontline, and detecting urban combat.   March 2, 2026. 

Geotechnical, economic, social, and environmental dimensions of direct lithium extraction (DLE) from Smackover brines in Arkansas 2/20/2026

Geotechnical, economic, social, and environmental dimensions of direct lithium extraction (DLE) from Smackover brines in Arkansas

Aaron Malone, Alannah Brett, Elisheba Spiller, Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Linda Battalora and Elizabeth Holley, Frances Fitzgerald, Caroline Ruppert, Andres Reyes and Julia Jann write about how the global scramble for critical minerals and the US push to increase domestic production have generated interest around the potential for direct lithium extraction from oilfield brines (OB-DLE) in Arkansas.  February 20, 2026.

Vertically integrated program brings together researchers across fields, experience levels 2/2/2026

Vertically integrated program brings together researchers across fields, experience levels

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Eric Toberer contributed to this article about how Mines undergraduate students involved in VIPER, Vertically Integrated Projects for Experiential Research, the experience is markedly different from other research opportunities. Most of those opportunities are paid research fellowships, where students work for a stipend or as part of work-study for a semester or one academic year. VIPER instead awards academic credit and projects are longer-term, with students able to engage in them over several years.   February 2, 2026.

The widening gap between copper supply and demand will have an impact on economic development and energy futures 2/2/2026

The widening gap between copper supply and demand will have an impact on economic development and energy futures

Adam C. Simon, Lawrence M. Cathles, Dan Wood, and Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian write about how copper is essential for modern economies including: energy systems, data centers, defense applications, space cooling and heating, heavy industry, smart agriculture, transportation, and consumer goods.  They show that copper is unlikely to be mined fast enough to meet all these needs in the short to medium term.  February 2, 2026.

Accelerated CO Separation and Adsorption Kinetics on Carbon Using Resonant Vibrations: A Process Intensification Strategy 1/28/2026

Accelerated CO Separation and Adsorption Kinetics on Carbon Using Resonant Vibrations: A Process Intensification Strategy

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Amirhosein Riahi and Richard LaDouceur write about how carbonaceous adsorbents, such as biochar, have attracted considerable interest for CO2 sequestration because of their cost-effective production and environmental friendliness. However, their slow adsorption kinetics – attributable to limited surface area and diffusional limitations – have hindered widespread adoption.  In this study, we introduced a green processing strategy that leverages resonant vibrations to improve the rate of CO2 adsorption on hemp biochar.  January 28, 2026.

Strategy at the source: A scenario-based network analysis of defense critical minerals (DCMs) in U.S. national security doctrine 1/28/2026

Strategy at the source: A scenario-based network analysis of defense critical minerals (DCMs) in U.S. national security doctrine

Macdonald Amoah, Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, and Fellow Jahara Matisek write about how U.S. military power depends on platforms and alliances, but its resilience depends on the availability of defense critical minerals (DCMs).  This article develops a scenario-based analytical framework that links cycles of U.S. grand strategy (doctrines of engagement vs. retrenchment) with levels of geopolitical tension (peace vs. conflict).  January 28, 2026.

VIIRS Nightfire Super-Resolution Method for Multiyear Cataloging of Natural Gas Flaring Sites: 2012-2025 1/16/2026

VIIRS Nightfire Super-Resolution Method for Multiyear Cataloging of Natural Gas Flaring Sites: 2012-2025

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Mikhail Zhizhin, Christopher D. Elvidge, Tilottama Ghosh, Gregory Gleason, and Director Morgan Bazilian present a new method for mapping global gas flaring using a multiyear spatio-temporal database of VIIRS Nightfire (VNF) nighttime infrared detections from the Suomi NPP, NOAA-20, and NOAA-21 satellites. The method is designed to resolve closely spaced industrial combustion sources and to produce a stable, physically meaningful flare catalog suitable for long-term monitoring and emissions analysis.   January 16, 2026.

Commercializing Fusion Energy 12/3/2025

Commercializing Fusion Energy

Payne Institute Fellow William Nuttall cowrote this book about how fusion energy has now emerged as one of the most disruptive technology opportunities attracting the attention of risk-tolerant investors and large amounts of private capital. This book considers the emergence of nuclear fusion technology as a commercial proposition grounded in technological opportunities and also in high-technology business development.   December 3, 2025.

Scaling carbon capture and storage (CCS) to gigaton capacity: A multi-dimensional and critical review 12/2/2025

Scaling carbon capture and storage (CCS) to gigaton capacity: A multi-dimensional and critical review

Benjamin Mitterrutzner, Benjamin K. Sovacool, Brage Rugstad Knudsen, Payne Institute Director Morgan D. Bazilian, Jinsoo Kim, Simon Roussanaly, Asgeir Tomasgard, and Fellow Steven Griffiths provide a comprehensive review of CCS technologies, from capture to storage, across key sectors, and maps the evolution of global CCS deployment; looking at cost-effective mitigation and policy, regulatory and market actions needed. December 2, 2025.

Review of Long-Term Patterns in Nighttime VIIRS Detections of Lights, Boats and Offshore Lights, Fires, and Flares in S.E. Asia: 2012-2023 11/23/2025

Review of Long-Term Patterns in Nighttime VIIRS Detections of Lights, Boats and Offshore Lights, Fires, and Flares in S.E. Asia: 2012-2023

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Director Christopher Elvidge, Research Associates Tillotama Ghosh and Mikhail Zhizhin, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about the comprehensive multi-year composite research completed by the group for South East Asia using VNL, VBD, and VNF products.  November 23, 2025.

Chile’s lithium exceptionalism: Strategic legacies and the contested future of the Salar de Maricunga 11/6/2025

Chile’s lithium exceptionalism: Strategic legacies and the contested future of the Salar de Maricunga

Vlado Vivoda, Natalie Ralph, Asmaa Khadim, Nigel Wight, and Payne Institute Director Morgan D. Bazilian write about how Chile’s approach, governed under an exceptional legal regime, created during the Cold War to safeguard potential nuclear applications, represents a case of lithium exceptionalism: a uniquely Chilean configuration shaped by historical legal restrictions, renewed state ambition, and intensifying global competition.  November 6, 2025.

IceSpec: An ice-core hyperspectral imaging framework 10/29/2025

IceSpec: An ice-core hyperspectral imaging framework

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Senior Research Associate Mikhail Zhizhin and research associates write about how IceSpec, a novel hyperspectral line-scan imaging system for ice cores, nondestructively captures light-scattering features via dark-field illumination. Its calibrated visible and near-infrared spectral data enhance analysis and archiving, advancing research on stratigraphic impurities, ice dynamics and paleoclimate.  October 29, 2025.

Trends and 2025 insights on the rise of electric vehicles in the USA 10/9/2025

Trends and 2025 insights on the rise of electric vehicles in the USA

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian and other researchers write about how plug-in electric vehicles (EVs) are reshaping the transportation energy landscape, providing a practical alternative to petroleum fuels for a growing number of applications.   October 9, 2025.

Not-So-Quick and Not-So-Dirty Solutions to Decarbonize Off-Road Vehicles 10/7/2025

Not-So-Quick and Not-So-Dirty Solutions to Decarbonize Off- Road Vehicles

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Aashutosh N. Mistry, Polina Brodsky, Andrea J. Brickey, Adam Duran, Eve Mozur, Rajavasanth Rajasegar, Gregory Jackson, Steven C. Decaluwe, Robert J. Kee, Ryan O’Hayre, Alexandra Newman, Robert Braun, Director Morgan Bazilian, and Neal P. Sullivan write about how transportation decarbonization efforts through electric vehicles have sped up in recent years, we still face barriers to their adoption.  October 7, 2025.

Review of sustainability challenges for lithium production: The case of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile in the Lithium Triangle 10/1/2025

Review of sustainability challenges for lithium production: The case of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile in the Lithium Triangle

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Raphael Deberdt and Nicole Smith, Maria Sol Saavedra, and Director Morgan Bazilian examine how the sustainability challenges facing lithium extraction and production in Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile. These three countries form the “Lithium Triangle” and hold approximately 50 % of the world’s known lithium resources.  October 1, 2025.

An Improved Calibration for Satellite Estimation of Flared Gas Volumes from VIIRS Nighttime Data 9/8/2025

An Improved Calibration for Satellite Estimation of Flared Gas Volumes from VIIRS Nighttime Data

Payne Institute Earth Observation Group Mikhail Zhizhin, Christopher D. Elvidge, Tamara Sparks, Tilottama Ghosh, Morgan Bazilian and Feng-Chi Hsu write about how the VIIRS Nightfire (VNF) data product is particularly useful for monitoring of global natural gas flaring and estimation of flared gas volumes. In this paper we report on the development of an empirical calibration for estimating flared gas volumes based on VIIRS observations of flares running at low, medium, and high flared gas volumes. Tests were run with both single and double flares, with and without atmospheric correction.  September 8, 2025.

Critical minerals at Mines: Interdisciplinary team of researchers leading collaborations to increase domestic mineral mining, secure supply chains 9/2/2025

Critical minerals at Mines: Interdisciplinary team of researchers leading collaborations to increase domestic mineral mining, secure supply chains

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Elizabeth Holley and Nicole Smith are featured in this article about how with expertise in mining, policy, economics and community engagement, Mines is helping chart path to strengthened national resilience, resource independence.  September 2, 2025.

Mine suppliers: Understanding backward linkages in Kitwe, Zambia 9/1/2025

Mine suppliers: Understanding backward linkages in Kitwe, Zambia

Payne Institute Fellow Anja Benshaul-Tolonen and Paula Fernandez Musso write about how the integration of domestic firms into the mining global value chain (GVC) can bolster local economies, yet the scale and impact of these linkages remain largely unknown. This study examines the mining value chain in Kitwe, a key mining hub in Zambia’s Copperbelt.  September 1, 2025.

By-product recovery from US metal mines could reduce import reliance for critical minerals 8/21/2025

By-product recovery from US metal mines could reduce import reliance for critical minerals

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Elizabeth Holley, Dorit Hammerling, Rod Eggert, Erik Spiller, Priscilla Nelson, and Karlie Hadden write about how the US has sufficient geological endowment in active metal mines to reduce the nation’s dependence on critical mineral imports.  This study uses a statistical evaluation of new geochemical datasets to quantify the critical minerals that are mined annually in US ores but go unrecovered.  August 21, 2025.

Critical minerals lists for low-carbon transitions: Reviewing their structure, objectives, and limitations 7/30/2025

Critical minerals lists for low-carbon transitions: Reviewing their structure, objectives, and limitations

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Raphael Deberdt and Nicole Smith, student researcher Jordy Calderon, and Scott McCall write about how critical minerals lists have flourished in the past decade, in particular linked to the importance of critical minerals for low-carbon transitions. We identified 27 critical minerals or materials lists across 15 countries and the European Union (EU).  July 30, 2025.

Colorado School of Mines’ Earth Observation Group Releases Key Data for 2025 Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report 7/22/2025

Colorado School of Mines’ Earth Observation Group Releases Key Data for 2025 Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report

The Payne Institute contributed satellite data to the World Bank 2025 Global Gas Flaring Tracker Report.  The research is based on satellite data from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS), underscores persistent challenges in reducing flaring intensity, which has remained largely unchanged over the past 15 years.  July 22, 2025.

Graphite and manganese mining in the U.S.: Proposed projects and federal battery mineral policies 7/17/2025

Graphite and manganese mining in the U.S.: Proposed projects and federal battery mineral policies

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Elizabeth Holley, Nicole Smith, and Raphael Deberdt, Student Researchers Lukas Fahle, Grayce Gibbs, and Jordy Calderon, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how demand is increasing for the minerals used in energy transmission and storage, such as graphite and manganese in batteries.  This paper reviews the geological resources and development status of graphite and manganese projects in the U.S. and examines the impacts of policies on U.S. mining and processing of these two commodities.  July 17, 2025.

Nickel and cobalt from U.S. mines and refineries: Assessment of five dimensions of mineral availability 7/16/2025

Nickel and cobalt from U.S. mines and refineries: Assessment of five dimensions of mineral availability

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Elizabeth Holley, Nicole Smith, Rod Eggert, and Erik Spiller, Research Associate Aaron Malone, Student Researchers Lukas Fahle and Jordy Calderon, and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how domestic mining and refining of critical minerals such as nickel (Ni) and cobalt (Co), and the active and proposed Ni and Co mining and refining projects in the U.S. to evaluate five dimensions of mineral availability.  July 16, 2025. 

Bridging the Energy Access Divide: A Policy Gap Analysis of 12 African National Energy Compacts Under Mission 300 7/9/2025

Bridging the Energy Access Divide: A Policy Gap Analysis of 12 African National Energy Compacts Under Mission 300

Payne Institute Communications Associate Macdonald Amoah writes about how Africa stands at a pivotal juncture in its energy trajectory, where bold aspirations for universal electrification by 2030 confront entrenched structural and institutional barriers.  In response to this pressing challenge, twelve African governments have aligned themselves with the World Bank’s Mission 300 Energy Compacts, committing to universal access through a suite of reform-oriented and infrastructure-driven strategies.  July 9, 2025.

Tokenizing the Environmental Attributes of Liquefied Natural Gas 7/9/2025

Tokenizing the Environmental Attributes of Liquefied Natural Gas

Payne Institute Energy Finance Lab Director Brad Handler and student researcher Mark McCurdy write about how efforts to combat emissions of global warming/greenhouse gases are spawning the development of systems to track, record and share the carbon footprint and other environmental attributes of various operations. Methane emissions from the natural gas industry.  July 9, 2025.  

The Importance of Military Steel Production in Large-Scale Conflicts 7/7/2025

The Importance of Military Steel Production in Large-Scale Conflicts

Gregory Wischer and Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian write about the importance a consistent steel supply chain for US national defense.  A hard, strong alloy of iron, carbon, and other elements, it is used in platforms like attack submarines, long-range bombers, mobile missile launchers, as well as munitions like torpedoes, standoff missiles, and long-range missiles and rockets.  July 7, 2025.

U.S. industry practices and attitudes towards reprocessing mine tailings for metal recovery 6/27/2025

U.S. industry practices and attitudes towards reprocessing mine tailings for metal recovery

Payne Institute Research Associate Aaron Malone, Faculty Fellows Elizabeth Holley, Priscilla Nelson, and Erik Spiller, and Lukas Fahle and Nina Zaronikola write about how recovery of metals from mine tailings has the potential to reduce environmental liabilities and contribute to circular economy, but implementation is limited. This study uses three methods to examine the state of practice and identify knowledge gaps around tailings reprocessing.  June 27, 2025.  

Lithium production in the United States: Socio-technical review of sites, environmental impacts, and social acceptance 6/27/2025

Lithium production in the United States: Socio-technical review of sites, environmental impacts, and social acceptance

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Elizabeth Holley, Raphael Deberdt, and Nicole Smith, and Alannah C. Brett, and Lukas Fahle write about how the low-carbon transition has motivated a global exploration and development surge for lithium (Li).  Currently, the US has only one Li mine and commercial refinery, and one Li-byproduct producer in 2024.  June 27, 2025.

Payne Institute Critical Minerals Special Report – June 2025 6/24/2025

Payne Institute Critical Minerals Special Report

The Payne Institute for Public Policy has published a Critical Minerals Special Report to coincide with our first London Critical Minerals Symposium held on June 23, 2025.  Our insightful sessions hosted representatives from government, the mining industry, academia, finance, advocacy and philanthropy to consider optimizing the opportunities for socioeconomic development in mineral resource-rich countries.  The attached compendium features work from just a few of our panelists.  June 24, 2025.  

A Study of Terminal Decline Rates of Oil & Gas Wells 6/9/2025

A Study of Terminal Decline Rates of Oil & Gas Wells

Payne Institute Energy Finance Lab Program Director Brad Handler, Student Researchers Vandan Bhalala and Liam O’Byrne, and Faculty Fellow Jim Crompton write about how in the United States alone, the Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there may be nearly 4 million inadequately decommissioned oil and gas wells. They also collectively are a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, a driving force behind global warming.  A climate mitigation business model is emerging in which a project developer undertakes to properly plug a leaking abandoned wellbore to stop its fugitive emissions.  June 9, 2025.  

 

The Payne Institute experts are regional, national, and international leaders in applied research in natural resources, energy, and the environment. Our team is involved in a wide variety of research projects in these fields, and are committed to sharing these results with academic and professional audiences.

 

DISCLAIMER: The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed are those of the author alone and do not reflect the opinions, beliefs, viewpoints, or official policies of the Payne Institute or Colorado School of Mines.