Talon Metals plant gets boost from workforce training grant
David Olson / The Forum
Jason Ehlert, president of the North Dakota Building and Construction Trades Council, talks with a potential recruit at a recent job fair held in Fargo.
Jason Ehlert, president of the North Dakota Building and Construction Trades Council, talks with a potential recruit at a recent job fair held in Fargo.
Contributed / Tesla
Tesla, with one of its electric cars at a Supercharger station, will buy battery materials for its vehicles from a Talon Metals processing plant that will be built in North Dakota’s Mercer Count near Beulah.
Tesla, with one of its electric cars at a Supercharger station, will buy battery materials for its vehicles from a Talon Metals processing plant that will be built in North Dakota’s Mercer Count near Beulah.
BEULAH, N.D. — Talon Metals plans to build a $433 million plant that will employ 155 workers to process minerals for use in batteries to power Tesla cars.
The city of Beulah’s Department of Economic Development, North Dakota Building Trades Unions, the Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College on the nearby Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and Talon Metals have partnered to help fill those positions and train workers to build the plant.
The U.S Department of Energy has awarded a $100,000 grant to help create a 12-week program that will provide basic construction and manufacturing skills to tribal members to create a path to well-paying jobs in the building trade unions or in a new manufacturing facility such as Talon Metal’s planned plant in Mercer County.
Earlier, the Department of Energy awarded Talon Metals a $114.8 million matching grant, with Talon’s share about $320 million, as part of the government’s efforts to increase domestic production of lithium batteries.
“This is an example where a company and a local community come together to try to ensure that tribal members learn the skills to compete for jobs,” said Todd Malan, Talon Metals’ chief external affairs officer and head of climate strategy.
The Department of Energy grant was one of eight announced by Brad Crabtree, assistant secretary of fossil energy and carbon management.
Crabtree operates a ranch near Kulm and was involved in energy and climate policy for the Twin Cities-based Great Plains Institute.
“We’re excited to partner with energy communities across the nation as they advance plans to repurpose their energy assets and develop new infrastructure as we continue to work toward a clean energy and industrial economy,” Crabtree said in a statement.
“The local initiatives funded through this program will help drive regional economic growth and technological innovation, while capitalizing on the skillsets of the existing workforce, providing new jobs and opportunities in areas such as sustainable energy technology development and advanced manufacturing.”
Students will learn basic skills to give them a working knowledge of the building trades, such as reading construction blueprints, to allow them to navigate apprenticeship programs, said Jason Ehlert, president of North Dakota Building Trades Unions.
Applications will be accepted until Jan. 31, and the first cohort of students will begin Feb. 5.
Students will receive online instruction. The program is the first to help prepare Native American students for apprenticeship programs in the building trades, said Iman Moore, who works on employer relations at Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College.
“At the national level they’re really hoping to use it as a model,” she said. “We’re hoping the other tribal colleges and universities can use it as a model.”
The goal of the program is to increase diversity in the building trades. “It’s primarily white males who are in the apprenticeship programs,” Moore said.
In many cases, those who seek apprenticeships in the building trades have a family connection to the industry, she said. “It’s kind of hard to get access to apprenticeship opportunities.”
At the request of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, the program will be available to students at all of the state’s tribal colleges.
Well-paying jobs, such as those building trades offer, are badly needed on reservations, Moore said.
“There’s a lot of unemployment, underemployment, on the reservation,” she said.
There already is a workforce training framework in place with Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, said Jason Ehlert, president of the North Dakota Building Trades.
“This is the first partnership between a Native American college and trade union,” he said. “We are the first ones to do this.”
The training program also is supported by a $75,000 grant from the U.S.
Department of Commerce.
The plant will be built with union labor, with an estimated 200 to 300 workers at the peak of construction, Ehlert said.
“It’s a very large project but also a groundbreaking project in terms of what they’re going to accomplish,” he said.
The goal is to recruit 30 to 40 students to start the program. Talon will contribute people and money, while other partners will also provide in-kind support, including people and facilities.
“This is just a tiny slice of what we’ll be doing in workforce training,” Malan said.
The training program can also be a model for other industries, said Granville “Beaver” Brinkman, economic development director for the city of Beulah.
“Labor is short everywhere,” he said. Officials hope the local availability of training and apprenticeship programs will help to keep young people in the area.
Officials are working to attract other industrial firms to the area to diversify the economy, now heavily dependent on coal mining and coal-fired electricity generation.
“We have numerous other industries that are interested in locating in our area because of the infrastructure here,” which includes plentiful water from Lake Sakakawea, rail access, electricity and a central location within North Dakota, Brinkman said.
Beulah also is looking at establishing a STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — center affiliated with a college.
Talon Metals is in the final stages of negotiating a contract for a brownfield industrial site with railroad access for the plant near Beulah, Malan said. Federal and state environmental permits will be required for the project.
Talon will use fly ash and tailings from nearby coal-fired power plants in a process that neutralizes and stabilizes the ash so it can be used in making concrete.
“We think we can make a replacement for Portland cement,” Malan said. The possibility is promising, he added, “We’ve got a lot more science to do.”
Talon’s proposal for a nickel mine in northern Minnesota has encountered environmental opposition, but Malan said the processing center could use nickel mined elsewhere in North America, including Canada or Michigan.
Readers can contact reporter Patrick Springer at 701-241-5522 or pspringer@forumcomm. com.
The city of Beulah’s Department of Economic Development, North Dakota Building Trades Unions, the Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College on the nearby Fort Berthold Indian Reservation and Talon Metals have partnered to help fill those positions and train workers to build the plant.
The U.S Department of Energy has awarded a $100,000 grant to help create a 12-week program that will provide basic construction and manufacturing skills to tribal members to create a path to well-paying jobs in the building trade unions or in a new manufacturing facility such as Talon Metal’s planned plant in Mercer County.
Earlier, the Department of Energy awarded Talon Metals a $114.8 million matching grant, with Talon’s share about $320 million, as part of the government’s efforts to increase domestic production of lithium batteries.
“This is an example where a company and a local community come together to try to ensure that tribal members learn the skills to compete for jobs,” said Todd Malan, Talon Metals’ chief external affairs officer and head of climate strategy.
The Department of Energy grant was one of eight announced by Brad Crabtree, assistant secretary of fossil energy and carbon management.
Crabtree operates a ranch near Kulm and was involved in energy and climate policy for the Twin Cities-based Great Plains Institute.
“We’re excited to partner with energy communities across the nation as they advance plans to repurpose their energy assets and develop new infrastructure as we continue to work toward a clean energy and industrial economy,” Crabtree said in a statement.
“The local initiatives funded through this program will help drive regional economic growth and technological innovation, while capitalizing on the skillsets of the existing workforce, providing new jobs and opportunities in areas such as sustainable energy technology development and advanced manufacturing.”
Students will learn basic skills to give them a working knowledge of the building trades, such as reading construction blueprints, to allow them to navigate apprenticeship programs, said Jason Ehlert, president of North Dakota Building Trades Unions.
Applications will be accepted until Jan. 31, and the first cohort of students will begin Feb. 5.
Students will receive online instruction. The program is the first to help prepare Native American students for apprenticeship programs in the building trades, said Iman Moore, who works on employer relations at Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College.
“At the national level they’re really hoping to use it as a model,” she said. “We’re hoping the other tribal colleges and universities can use it as a model.”
The goal of the program is to increase diversity in the building trades. “It’s primarily white males who are in the apprenticeship programs,” Moore said.
In many cases, those who seek apprenticeships in the building trades have a family connection to the industry, she said. “It’s kind of hard to get access to apprenticeship opportunities.”
At the request of the North Dakota Indian Affairs Commission, the program will be available to students at all of the state’s tribal colleges.
Well-paying jobs, such as those building trades offer, are badly needed on reservations, Moore said.
“There’s a lot of unemployment, underemployment, on the reservation,” she said.
There already is a workforce training framework in place with Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College, said Jason Ehlert, president of the North Dakota Building Trades.
“This is the first partnership between a Native American college and trade union,” he said. “We are the first ones to do this.”
The training program also is supported by a $75,000 grant from the U.S.
Department of Commerce.
The plant will be built with union labor, with an estimated 200 to 300 workers at the peak of construction, Ehlert said.
“It’s a very large project but also a groundbreaking project in terms of what they’re going to accomplish,” he said.
The goal is to recruit 30 to 40 students to start the program. Talon will contribute people and money, while other partners will also provide in-kind support, including people and facilities.
“This is just a tiny slice of what we’ll be doing in workforce training,” Malan said.
The training program can also be a model for other industries, said Granville “Beaver” Brinkman, economic development director for the city of Beulah.
“Labor is short everywhere,” he said. Officials hope the local availability of training and apprenticeship programs will help to keep young people in the area.
Officials are working to attract other industrial firms to the area to diversify the economy, now heavily dependent on coal mining and coal-fired electricity generation.
“We have numerous other industries that are interested in locating in our area because of the infrastructure here,” which includes plentiful water from Lake Sakakawea, rail access, electricity and a central location within North Dakota, Brinkman said.
Beulah also is looking at establishing a STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — center affiliated with a college.
Talon Metals is in the final stages of negotiating a contract for a brownfield industrial site with railroad access for the plant near Beulah, Malan said. Federal and state environmental permits will be required for the project.
Talon will use fly ash and tailings from nearby coal-fired power plants in a process that neutralizes and stabilizes the ash so it can be used in making concrete.
“We think we can make a replacement for Portland cement,” Malan said. The possibility is promising, he added, “We’ve got a lot more science to do.”
Talon’s proposal for a nickel mine in northern Minnesota has encountered environmental opposition, but Malan said the processing center could use nickel mined elsewhere in North America, including Canada or Michigan.
Readers can contact reporter Patrick Springer at 701-241-5522 or pspringer@forumcomm. com.