Research

Global Inventory of Advanced Rare Earth Element Assets 9/29/2026

Global Inventory of Advanced Rare Earth Element Assets

Payne Institute Fellow Andrew Gulley and Graham Lederer write about how the status of rare earth assets around the globe is changing rapidly.  The Global Inventory, date-stamped April 2026, summarizes: operational rare earth element (REE) assets, mine projects with reported resources or reserves, mine projects that have received significant U.S. government funding, and advanced facilities for processing, cracking, separation, smelting, metallization, alloying, and magnet production.  September 29, 2026.

From magnets to high-tech steel and nuclear fuel recycling, Mines researchers drive innovation in how we use critical minerals 9/24/2026

From magnets to high-tech steel and nuclear fuel recycling, Mines researchers drive innovation in how we use critical minerals

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Jenifer Shafer is featured in this article about how critical minerals are ultimately deemed critical for one reason: They’re essential to the fabrication and manufacturing of important products.   September 24, 2026.

Crimea Blackout Seen from VIIRS Nighttime Lights

Crimea Blackout Seen from VIIRS Nighttime Lights

Payne Institute Research Associate Mikhail Zhizhin and Director Morgan Bazilian write about how the VIIRS DNB detected a clear nighttime-light loss in southwestern Crimea, strongest on the night of July 5–6 UTC, centered on the Sevastopol–Simferopol focus area.  July 9, 2026.

World Economic Forum – Energy Transition Index 2026 6/18/2026

World Economic Forum – Energy Transition Index 2026

Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian has been on the Advisory Board for the World Economic Forum’s Flagship EIT Report since its inception more than a decade ago, and still a contributor today.  June 18, 2026.

Mineral demand from AI data centers: Infrastructure intensity, processing bottlenecks, and supply competition 613/2026

Mineral demand from AI data centers: Infrastructure intensity, processing bottlenecks, and supply competition

Macdonald Amoah, Maxwell Brown, Adam Simon, Payne Institute Director Morgan Bazilian, and Senior Research Fellow Jahara Matisek write about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) buildout’s demand for critical materials is driven primarily by bulk infrastructure requirements, using a bottom-up model to quantify this effect across 20 materials through 2035. June 13, 2026.

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. June 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.

The mining rush is on 5/19/2026

The mining rush is on

The Payne Institute and Faculty Fellow Elizabeth Holley are featured in this article about the world-renowned expertise at Colorado School of Mines in mining engineering, extractive metallurgy, mineral economics and more.  May19,2026.

Power under pressure 5/19/2026

Power under pressure

Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Paulo Cesar Tabares-Velasco contributed to this article about how climate-driven forces have become recurring stress tests for the vast network that powers homes, emergency services, industry, national defense and more.  May 19, 2026.

More than a one-size-fits-all solution 5/19/2026

More than a one-size-fits-all solution

Payne Institute Faculty Fellows Jennifer Miskimins and Jenifer Shafer contribute to this article about how as the U.S. pursues greater energy independence and abundance, Colorado School of Mines researchers are leading the way in delivering practical, scalable solutions in energy technologies.  May 19, 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. 

QA-VLM: Providing human-interpretable quality assessment for wire-feed laser additive manufacturing parts with vision language models 2/28/2026

QA-VLM: Providing human-interpretable quality assessment for wire-feed laser additive manufacturing parts with vision language models

Qiaojie Zheng, Jiucai Zhang, Joy Gockel, Michael B. Wakin, Craig Brice, and Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Xiaoli Zhang research introducea a novel QA-VLM framework that leverages the attention mechanisms and reasoning capabilities of vision-language models (VLMs), enriched with application-specific knowledge distilled from peer-reviewed journal articles, to generate human-interpretable quality assessments.  February 28, 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.

Cross-platform laser powder bed fusion process-property modeling with active transfer learning 9/15/2025

Cross-platform laser powder bed fusion process-property modeling with active transfer learning

Qiaojie Zheng, Michael B. Wakin, Joy Gockel, Craig Brice, and Payne Institute Faculty Fellow Xiaoli Zhang research creates an active transfer learning scheme was proposed to reduce data quantity requirements on tensile tests by leveraging knowledge from other platforms that manufacture similar materials.  September 15, 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.

 

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.