Freeport Donation to help UTEP Restart Mining Engineering Program

May 15, 2025 - A newly announced university partnership may help Freeport establish a pipeline of future mining engineers.

Last week, Freeport announced a donation of $7 million to the University of Texas at El Paso. Committed over a seven-year period, the money will support the university’s planned restart of its mining engineering degree program. Freeport’s contribution is part of a public-private partnership that also saw the Texas Board of Regents pledge $20 million.
UTEP was founded in 1914 as a mining school, but as the copper market decreased so too did the demand for mining engineers, and the program ended in 1964. However, UTEP announced last year it intended to restart the program, addressing an expected industrywide shortfall.

With demand for all minerals back on the rise and an anticipated need for more than 500 new mining engineers annually over the next 10 years, the university set a goal to rebuild and modernize its curriculum in response. UTEP has a goal of graduating 100 mining engineers annually once the program is fully established.

UTEP has long served as an informal pipeline for new Freeport employees. The university regularly ranks among the top four schools in operational intern hires for the company, and over the last four years alone, over 50 interns have been placed at Freeport operations across the southwest.

On hand to help celebrate the donation was Mike Kendrick, President-Climax Molybdenum, who marked the occasion by presenting a pickaxe – the school’s logo – made from copper processed at Freeport’s El Paso operation to UTEP President Heather Wilson. Kendrick also praised the UTEP students who had gone on to work for Freeport.

“They are some of the most well-trained, hard-working and loyal employees that we have,” Kendrick said. “And we could think of nothing better than to continue to support that.”
While the event allowed Kendrick to reflect on the strong ties between the university and the company, two UTEP alumni and current Freeport employees in attendance spoke from firsthand experience. For Adriana Ramirez, Senior Supervisor Refinery-El Paso Refinery, and Alejandro Cuaron, Metallurgist II-El Paso Rod, their education at UTEP helped create new opportunities.

“UTEP opened doors for me, providing a path to find and pursue my passion in metallurgy,” Ramirez said outside of the event. “Thanks to my time there, I was able to intern multiple times with Freeport, where I have gone on to build a promising career.”

The program is set to continue creating those opportunities when it begins in 2027. Currently awaiting approval from UTEP’s accreditors and the Texas Higher Education Board of Regents, UTEP will be the only school in the state offering a dedicated mining engineering degree—a striking fact, considering Texas plays host to a $10 billion mining industry.

“There’s no better place to jumpstart the mining engineering workforce than UTEP, home of the Miners,” said Josh Olmsted, President and Chief Operating Officer-Americas. “Our partnership with UTEP is long-standing, with a number of UTEP alumni working throughout our global operations.  We look forward to working with even more talented UTEP graduates to produce the materials that the global economy demands as they restart mining engineering.”

Photo (top to bottom): Mike Kendrick (right) presents UTEP President Heather Wilson with a copper pickaxe during a ceremony in El Paso; A UTEP graduate, Adriana Ramirez interned with Freeport multiple times before taking a position at the El Paso refinery.