March 13, 2024 - A Missouri S&T student team recently returned from Phoenix to the S&T campus as champions. S&T students won the Metallic Student Design Competition at the 2024 SME Annual Conference and Exhibition.

“This win felt phenomenal and made me proud to represent Missouri S&T as a mining engineer,” says Gunnar Wurst, a senior in mining engineering from St. Louis and the team’s captain. “Our team persevered through cohesiveness and hard work. We were all able to bounce ideas off each other and accept feedback when making mistakes. 

Members of the S&T team, from left, include Garrett Bell, Aidan Dumont, Santiago Reina, Spenser Walchuk, Gunnar Wurst and Holli Finnell.

“Every member showed great effort in completing their section of the solution and adding to other members’ sections.” 

This was the fourth year SME hosted the international competition and the first year S&T has come out on top, Wurst says. 

The contest was broken into two phases, with teams completing Phase 1 on their own campuses in the fall. Then, the top six teams were invited to Phase 2 of the competition, which was held in Phoenix. 

“For the first phase, we are given three weeks to complete an entire mine design from drill holes to reclamation with everything in between,” Wurst says. “Then, for the second phase, we are given 36 hours to complete an advanced solution. This year, we had to design an entire refinery process for lithium while considering economics and tradeoffs.”

He says Spenser Walchuk, a senior in metallurgical engineering from Rolla, Missouri, was recruited to the team for his expertise related to refineries and mineral processing, which made a significant difference in Phase 2. 

Holli Finnell, a senior in mining engineering from Nolensville, Tennessee, says she gained experiences in the competition that will be beneficial after she graduates from S&T. 

“Since our project was a complete feasibility?study, I was able to learn all it takes to design a mine from the ground up,” she says. “From initial permitting to final economic analysis, there was a lot of valuable information learned. Being able to tie all aspects of the design together to create a final product was a very interesting process.” 

Other members of the team include: 

- Garrett Bell, a senior in mining engineering from Loogootee, Indiana. 

- Aidan Dumont, a senior in mining engineering from Omaha, Nebraska. 

- Santiago Reina, a senior in mining engineering from Ibarra, Ecuador. 

Dr. Kwame Awuah-Offei, chair and professor of mining and explosives engineering at S&T, is the team’s advisor. 

For more information about Missouri S&T’s mining and explosives engineering programs, visit mee.mst.edu. 

About Missouri S&T

Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T) is a STEM-focused research university of over 7,000 students located in Rolla, Missouri. Part of the four-campus University of Missouri System, Missouri S&T offers over 100 degrees in 40 areas of study and is among the nation’s top public universities for salary impact, according to the Wall Street Journal. For more information about Missouri S&T, visit www.mst.edu.?