Josh Hoffman, PE, PhD., SME's 2014-'15 Congressional Fellow, accepted a position in September as full time professional staff of the House Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources. This is the same Subcommittee that he worked as SME's Fellow. Josh's mining experience proved invaluable to the Committee staff and House Members of the Subcommittee as he learned how policy is crafted, how to communicate on Capitol Hill, learned congressional procedures, and how to keep an eye out for emerging issues that affect the mining industry. He was part of the development of HR 1644 “STREAM” Act and HR 1937 “National Strategic and Critical Minerals Production Act.” Further, he has helped organize and staff congressional hearings. According to Josh, this in particular was something he had no expectation of being permitted to do but these experiences have been humbling to be trusted with the responsibility and encouraging when it happened more than once.
Josh Hoffman (L) with John Hayden, SME's Deputy Executive Director, in Hoffman's Subcommittee office in Washington, D.C. on Sept 28, 2015.
SME's 2015-'16 Congressional Fellow is Kevin Ashley, PE. Kevin is a Mining Engineer with 35 years of experience in the mining industry. He holds a B.S. in Mining Engineering, an M.S. in Mining Engineering (Geostatistics), and an MBA. He has worked on evaluation and development of more than 50 mining projects located in China, USA, Canada, Australia, Indonesia, Suriname, Papua New Guinea, Morocco, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Thailand, Peru, India, Spain, Saudi Arabia, and Norway, involving commodities as diverse as coal, gold, aluminum (including bauxite and alumina), copper, lignite, silver, nickel, iron ore, uranium, oil shale, kaolin, potash, zinc, and diamonds.
Kevin is hoping to use his year-long Fellowship in DC to be a mining resource for an individual Member of Congress or a Senate or House Committee with jurisdiction over mining and minerals policy.
Kevin Ashley (L) with John in D.C. on Sept 28, 2015.