State Assemblyman Ben Robbins The Jeff Poor Show Robbins said he often hears that the two things his constituents want most are growth and opportunity.

“That's why I'm running,” said Rep. Robbins, R-Sylacauga. “My main focus is how can we create more opportunity in my district in the state of Alabama?”

He said the foundations for greater economic success were already being laid.

“I think part of the workforce package that we have does that. I think part of the Game Plan bill that we passed last session does that. It's focused on how do we foster growth in our state and how do we foster that growth, not just foreign investment — and by foreign I mean investment from outside our community, inward — and how do we grow from what we already have?”

Robbins also said residents in his district have asked for more activities for their children, something he says economic development can make possible.

“We hear a lot about people wanting more for their kids, more activities, and a lot of that is driven by economic growth,” Robbins said. “More jobs mean more disposable income, more services and what comes from that. What we want for our community is to be on an upward trajectory, not a downward trajectory.”

“Again, that's one of the reasons I ran. I wanted to change that, and the best way to do that is to focus on growth strategies that will benefit the entire state and indirectly benefit my district.”

Robin's district is home to one of the world's largest graphite resources, which he believes could play a key role in delivering much-needed progress through new mining operations.

“You know, a graphite mining company called Westwater built a processing plant in Kellyton, Coosa County,” Robbins said.

When most people think of graphite, they think of the possibility of building electric vehicles, but there's another idea in the works that could be much more transformative, he said.

“One of the things people are thinking about is the EV market and whether it could be used to manufacture batteries for the EV market. And one of the things that's really important about this is the national security aspect. So if we can get a mine up and running in Coosa County, every soldier in the U.S. military is walking around with a backpack on, and that backpack is battery powered.”

Currently, most graphite comes from Eastern Europe or Africa, and is typically mined by Chinese-owned companies, according to Robbins.

“What we want to achieve, obviously, is to be able to mine it ourselves, process it ourselves and supply our own military with the raw materials, rather than relying on other countries.”

Robbins also spoke about the importance of the mine to the three counties in particular.

“So I think it's incredibly important not just to national security, but to economic opportunity. So we're not just talking about the processing facility that's being built in Kellyton, which is about 90 percent complete. If we can get the mine up and running, it's going to completely transform the economy and the economy of the Coosa, Tallapoosa and Talladega County area.”

But there was one big obstacle along the way.

“One of the big issues we're looking at right now is Coosa County is very remote and parts of it don't have the power grid to support the mine,” Robbins said. “There are no roads, there's no infrastructure. So the first thing we have to do is get the processing plant up and running — it's already 90 percent operational, if we can get it online.”

“We need to improve the local infrastructure to get the mine up and running.”

Overall, Robbins believes that to achieve true success, the entire state needs to have a stake in the region's economic prosperity.

“I think at some point we're going to have to make an investment to build an electric grid and water main in northwest Coosa County, and that would require investment from the state because Coosa County doesn't have the money,” he said. “But I think we'll be able to recoup that investment with the taxes that will come from the mine operation.”

Austin Shipley is a staff writer for Yellow Hammer News.