Metallic Student Design Competition

The 2025–2026 SME Metallic Student Design Competition once again brought together talented undergraduate teams from across the world for a rigorous, multidisciplinary mining challenge. Sponsored by Rio Tinto, the competition continued its mission of giving students hands-on experience in mine design, metallurgical processing, cost estimation and environmental, social and governance considerations. Out of 15 teams, six teams made their way to the second phase and competed in the live presentation round held during the MINEXCHANGE 2026 SME Annual Conference & Expo in Salt Lake City, UT: • Missouri Science and Technology — Metallon Mining.• Queen’s University — Gold Diggers.• Universidad Nacional Mayor De San Marcos — SIGMA+ Consulting.• University of Arizona — On the Rocks Consulting.• University of Kentucky — Shifty Shafts Consulting.• University of Nevada, Reno — Dust to Dollars. Among these outstanding finalists, Queen’s University’s Gold Diggers claimed first place. The winning team included Quinn Cooke, Grace Franklin, Matthew Harrison, Ethan Hodgkinson, Jack Scali and Cade Lembke, under the leadership of Prof. Vladislav Kecojevic. The SME Metallic Student Design Competition is designed as a multidisciplinary experience that mirrors real-world project development. Student teams evaluate a hard-rock mineral deposit and develop an economically viable process flowsheet, drawing on knowledge from mining, metallurgical, geological, chemical and related engineering and science disciplines. Each year, the challenge evolves to reflect different deposit types and technical problems. Since its launch in 2020, the competition has featured projects involving copper, gold, lithium and boron deposits, with new twists introduced each year. Teams may consist of up to six undergraduate students from any program on campus, including but not limited to mining, chemical, metallurgical, geological and geotechnical engineering and related sciences. Each team will have access to competition software and training, including CostMine, METSIM and Hexagon MinePlan. During the first phase of the competition, each team member is allowed up to 40 hours over 28 days to develop a full design report using the provided data. Reports are reviewed by industry experts who provide comments and feedback. The top six teams are then invited to an in-person, two-day event during the MINEXCHANGE 2027 SME Annual Conference & Expo in Denver, CO, where they are evaluated on technical content, presentation skills and responses to questions posed by judges. The committee extends its sincere thanks to the judges, software sponsors and volunteers for their time, effort and continued commitment to student learning and professional development. Registration will start in September for the 2026–2027 SME Metallic Student Design Competition.

Metallic Student Design Competition

Authored by: Deniz Talan and Miguel Pugmire

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