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Northwestern University

Partners

Partners

SuReMin collaborates with partner researchers and students from Chile, Mexico, Montana, and Wisconsin who study mining and mining communities.

Our approach prioritizes the voices of communities most impacted by the mining, production, supply, and disposal of lithium, and emphasizes the need to bring together varied research across the fields of chemical, mechanical, and environmental engineering to build a durable, stable, and socially responsible supply chain.

Founding Collaborators

Production Partners

SuReMin’s Chilean partners bring the perspective of a nation that is a primary provider of lithium used in lithium-ion batteries, the central technology today for electrifying transportation. Chile is also a major producer of copper, which is central to many technologies including lithium-ion batteries. SMI adds the perspective of Australia, another key lithium provider. Mexico is among the top three suppliers of 14 minerals that the United States Department of Defense has identified as strategic, critical, and import-dependent. Voices from the Global South – including Chile and Mexico – are notably underrepresented in sustainable mining research, despite this region contributing over 35 million metric tons of critical minerals for lithium-ion batteries alone annually.

Indigenous Partners

Indigenous peoples deserve increased representation as more than half of the energy transition minerals and metals resources are located near or on Indigenous lands or territory inhabited by peasant peoples. SuReMin leaders in the United States have worked with both Global South researchers and Indigenous communities. For example, Suiseeya and Dunn’s efforts leading Northwestern’s Buffett Institute Global Working Group on the disproportionate impacts of environmental challenges subsequently evolved into the NSF-supported STRONG Manoomin Collective – a community-driven collaboration with Ojibwe communities in the Upper Great Lakes.

Convergent Research Partnership Approach

Among SuReMin’s founding collaborators, we incorporate multiple disciplines to achieve convergent research: chemical, mechanical, and environmental engineering, chemistry, geochemistry, computer science, political science, sociology, and anthropology. Only with this approach to convergent research can we build the necessary scientific infrastructure to eventually address critical fundamental questions that drive the establishment of a sustainable, resilient, and responsible global minerals supply chain such as:

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