Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes is an engineer with thirteen years of experience in acquiring, financing, and developing both greenfield and brownfield natural resources projects around the globe. Ms. Zumwalt-Forbes formerly served as the US’ Deputy Director for Batteries and Critical Materials, overseeing the deployment of ~$6B in non-dilutive equity and ~$10B in tax credits into the US battery supply chain. Ms. Zumwalt-Forbes has deep expertise in starting and scaling energy supply chain ventures, having served as Co-Founder and President of Black Mountain Metals (private nickel mining company) and Black Mountain Exploration (private natural gas company – successfully IPO’d). She was key to both the IPO and business combination for Metals Acquisition Corp, having served as its Co-Founder and Senior Advisor from 2021-2023. Prior to joining Black Mountain in 2017, Ms. Zumwalt-Forbes worked in several Lead Engineering roles at ExxonMobil and XTO Energy, managing drilling, completions, and planning aspects of international shale exploration, laying the groundwork for more than US$1 billion capital deployment. She is on the Advisory Board of both TCU’s Energy Institute and OU’s School of Petroleum Engineering.
Ms. Zumwalt-Forbes graduated summa cum laude from the University of Oklahoma with a B.S. in Petroleum Engineering and holds an MBA from Harvard Business School. Ms. Zumwalt-Forbes was highlighted as the featured honoree on the 2020 Forbes 30 under 30 in Energy list, a 2021 Oil & Gas Investor Forty under 40 award winner, and one of the top 25 women in business in DFW by Dallas Business Journal. She now resides in Austin, TX with her husband, daughter, and two cats.
Ashley’s Linkedin Profile: / ashleyzumwalt
In this expert chat with Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes, we discuss:
0:00 – Introduction
2:22 – Ashley’s background in energy and public service
4:30 – What critical and rare earth minerals are, why are they important, and what they used for in U.S. industry
8:31 – Where are these critical and rare earth minerals located around the globe. How do great power rivals, such as China, utilize their supply of critical minerals to harm U.S. strategic interests
16:16 – How is the U.S. working with allies and partners to establish a robust and secure supply chain of these critical minerals and rare earths
19:52 – Chinese pricing models and how the U.S. should respond
22:56 – What national security concerns should Americans be concerned about if the U.S. is unable to establish secure supply chains of these critical minerals? 24:40 – Should the U.S. be concerned about its energy security in the next 5-10 years?
27:05 – Thoughts on why China is pursuing renewable energy sources and interplay in Chinese geopolitical calculation
28:56 – Investing in upstream assets and influencing outcomes
30:47 – Where can folks find you, what are you working on? What’s new with Ashley Zumwalt-Forbes?
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