A focused trade agreement is triggering job creation in specific pockets of the industrial sector. The 2024 U.S.-Japan Critical Minerals Agreement, aimed at securing supply chains for electric vehicle batteries, includes provisions that incentivize joint processing of minerals like lithium and graphite on U.S. soil, not just mining.
This is leading to new project announcements for midstream mineral processing facilities and battery component precursor plants in regions like the Gulf Coast and the Midwest. The hiring wave is for Chemical Process Engineers, Metallurgists, and Plant Managers with experience in hydrometallurgy or electrochemical processing, not just traditional mining engineers.
These are high-skilled manufacturing roles in a burgeoning cleantech industry. They represent an opportunity for engineers in the oil/gas or traditional chemical sectors to pivot their process expertise toward the energy transition, often in similar geographic regions, supporting a new domestic supply chain from the ground up.
Source: U.S. Trade Representative fact sheet and Department of Energy grant announcements for battery material processing.