Minerals

In an effort to better understand domestic resource potential, the USGS is investigating the genetic relationship between rare earth element deposits at Mountain Pass, California and Music Valley (Pinto Mountains, California) and extend these studies across a 130-km long belt of alkaline Proterozoic rocks in the southeast Mojave Desert. Such a combined study would significantly improve our...

We are collaborating with academic and industry geologists to develop a predictive model for lithium partitioning between lithium-bearing clays and lithium brines. We are conducting laboratory experiments to measure lithium partitioning between clays and brines. Experimental results will be compared with real-world data to learn whether this model may be used as an exploration tool for predicting...

The USGS Mineral Resources Program completed a comprehensive assessment and inventory of potential mineral resources covering approximately10 million acres of federal and adjacent lands in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Montana.

We conducted linked investigations to address the magmatic-hydrothermal evolution, post-mineralization structural histories, and sources of host rocks and hydrothermal mineral components of three significant, subduction-related, Au-Ag districts in the Walker Lane structural zone in the western Great Basin.

The project developed means to use several large legacy digital databases together in GIS to identify areas with mineral resource potential for critical minerals in Alaska.

In response to the growing demand for information on the global mineral-resource base, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) completed assessments for undiscovered resources of porphyry and sediment-hosted copper, platinum-group elements, and potash.

The Headwaters Province project provided geoscience data and interpretations to the Federal Land Management Agencies (FLMA) that were basic to sound policy and land-stewardship practices.