Masters Theses

Keywords and Phrases

Critical Minerals; Discrete Choice Experiment; Social Acceptance; Social License to Operate; Sustainable Mining

Abstract

Rising demand for battery-critical minerals has increased U.S. mining efforts, but projects often face public opposition. There is limited work on how individuals in affected regions evaluate trade-offs between economic and environmental risks.

This research applies a discrete choice experiment to examine individual preferences for proposed battery-critical minerals mining projects in Missouri, Minnesota, and Idaho. 1908 respondents evaluated hypothetical mining projects defined by jobs, state tax revenue, the proportion of tailings reprocessed, groundwater impacts, and surface water impacts, under gold and silver versus battery-critical mineral framings.

Conditional and mixed logit models were used to assess the importance of attributes, demographic effects, and preference heterogeneity. Economic benefits significantly increase support for the project (p < 0.05), and respondents prefer tailings reprocessing to new mining activities (p < 0.05). In contrast, well water depletion and declining fish populations significantly reduce support (p < 0.05), underscoring the centrality of water concerns. Demographics, including age and gender (p < 0.05), shape baseline support while product framing has limited effects.

Marginal rates of substitution show respondents would require approximately 1,836 additional jobs to accept a 10% decline in fish populations and about 2,716 jobs to accept continual well dryness, indicating an effective rejection of environmental harm.

The study informs project design, permitting, and community engagement, helping reduce socio-political risk and support more socially aligned critical mineral development.

Advisor(s)

Awuah-Offei, Kwame, 1975-

Committee Member(s)

Olbricht, Gayla R.
Fikru, Mahelet G.

Department(s)

Mining Engineering

Degree Name

M.S. in Mining Engineering

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2026

Pagination

ix, 99 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes_bibliographical_references_(pages 93-98)

Rights

© 2026 Bamidele Joseph Ajiga , All Rights Reserved

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 12582

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