Economic Geology

The project seeks to better understand the mineral systems of the Boulder batholith and surrounding region in Montana using new airborne geophysical data in conjunction with geologic mapping.

Our objective is to develop a national-scale, geospatial database that is the authoritative source of the most important mines, mineral deposits, and mineral districts of the United States.

The USGS, in combination with Geoscience Australia and the Geological Survey of Canada, formed the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative (CMMI) in 2019 to combine expertise and collaboratively conduct research on critical mineral resources.

This project continues work on large magmatic systems in the U.S., where critical mineral commodities important to clean energy technologies can be concentrated. Modeling of large mafic intrusion extents will continue, and new geophysical methods will be applied to improve understanding of magmatic systems.

We will publish reports and interpretive papers on existing data from USGS internal mineral resource assessment collaborative work.

Project objectives are to (1) develop innovative analytical techniques for isotope geochemistry and U-Pb geochronology using laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS), and (2) apply these techniques to collaborative research projects of high priority to the Mineral Resources Program, including studies related to the formation of "critical mineral" deposits, and...

The Silverton caldera complex in southwest Colorado hosts base and precious metals that have been mined since the late 1800s. Extensive mine workings, excellent bedrock exposures, and deeply incised drainages make this area a natural laboratory ideally suited for furthering our understanding of the mineral systems in a volcanic environment. In addition, state-of-the-art geophysical data processing...

The project objective is to develop and apply solution and in situ isotopic and trace element methods to emerging research opportunities to gain a better understanding of the processes controlling critical mineral deposits, metal mobility, and other geological inquiries.

This project will produce maps of surface mineralogy at 15 m spatial resolution covering the largest contiguous area of hyperspectral imagery that has ever been assembled for the U.S., over 380,000 sq. km. in California and Nevada. We are developing new methods to apply these data to map critical minerals, including minerals critical for battery fabrication, and to evaluate resources available...

The project objective is to determine the processes responsible for critical element enrichment in carbonatites and to enhance our ability to identify and assess economic deposits. This project will work at various scales to meet this objective and will primarily focus on deposits within the US or our Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative collaborative Nations Canada and Australia.

The central objective of this project is to develop a greater understanding of deep bedrock groundwater circulation and its contribution to surface water metal loads in mineralized mountain blocks composed of sedimentary rocks. This work is being performed in cooperation with Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory as part of a broader research program aimed at understanding processes controlling...

Platinum group elements, also known as PGEs, are a group of elements that have specific properties which make them useful for various applications in industry. One geologic setting that contains large concentrations of platinum group elements is layered mafic intrusions. This project will use new and preexisting geophysical datasets to characterize the internal structure of layered intrusions...