Life Cycle of Critical Minerals: A Balanced Approach to Meeting Our Nation's Resource Demands
Critical minerals are essential to the Nation’s economy and security. Demand for critical minerals is increasing, and it is essential to balance the societal need for these minerals with efforts to understand the effects of mining on other natural resources and to develop techniques to minimize these effects. The USGS Minerals Resources Life Cycle Integrated Science Team (IST) focuses on the life cycle of mineral resources in the environment.
Enhancing Knowledge of the Critical Minerals Life Cycle Through Scientific Research
Understanding the life cycle of critical minerals, including rare earth elements, is essential for reliable and balanced development of technology, and informed decision-making. Within the USGS Ecosystem Mission Area, the Environmental Health Programs, Minerals Resources Life Cycle IST aims to enhance understanding and guide best practices through comprehensive research, to:
- Inform safe and efficient handling of minerals from extraction sites to processing and storage facilities.
- Guide effective reuse of mining by-products.
- Understand perceived and actual risks linked to source, transport, and exposure from mining-generated materials during various stages of the mineral lifecycle including at abandoned mines.
Click on these links to learn more about the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area and Critical Minerals!
USGS research studies are designed to achieve several key objectives:
- Characterize the types of minerals and the chemical properties of ores and their associated by-products, aimed at maximizing recovery of valuable materials while minimizing the release of materials that may cause harm.
- Understand the movement of minerals and their by-products through the surrounding landscape, effects on plants and animals including fish and wildlife populations, and potential effects on drinking and recreational water sources.
- Enhance mineral resource studies by increasing the understanding of potential risks of mineral resource development, working closely with scientists within the USGS Energy and Minerals Mission Area.
Integrated science approach for understanding the minerals lifecycle
Mining activities can expose workers and surrounding populations to metals and other materials. The science undertaken by the Environmental Health Program, Minerals Resources Life Cycle IST provides data to inform potential mining-related exposure. These data improve understanding of how mining-related elements move, change, are available to living organisms, and how they affect other natural resources, including humans. Research is accomplished at a range of scales, including:
- Laboratory-Based Studies: Conduct controlled experiments to understand how different elements behave, interact, accumulate, and the effects of exposure on plants and wildlife.
- Modeling: Create simple models to help predict how different elements behave in the environment. These models will show how elements move, build up in different places, and how people and wildlife might be exposed to them. This information will be useful for assessing potential risks and making informed decisions.
- Targeted Field Studies: Execute investigations at field sites in watersheds across the Nation to collect real-world data, to assess laboratory and modeling results, and understand effects of the mining life cycle on drinking, agricultural, and recreational waters.
With this information, land managers, decision-makers, and the public and private sectors can identify and take actions to reduce risks to nearby resources and communities during mineral resource development and extraction.
Current Initiatives of the Minerals Lifecycle Science Team
The Minerals Lifecycle Science Team is collaborating with the USGS Energy and Minerals Mission Area, the Mineral Resources Program, and various partners on initiatives related to mine material research and reclamation, particularly for critical minerals vital to the nation's economy and national security. Key activities include:
- Framework for Critical Minerals: Developing a comprehensive approach to evaluate the occurrence, chemistry, availability, and toxicity of critical minerals to prioritize research.
- Risk Assessment Method: Creating an affordable method to assess environmental health risks at abandoned mine sites, enhancing risk evaluation beyond basic screening.
- Mineral Recovery: Identifying steps to detect and recover resources at old mine sites and using water-quality data to trace rare earth element deposits.
- Critical Mineral Analysis: Utilizing new techniques for analyzing and recovering critical minerals from mine drainage.
- Tracking Metal Movement: Studying how metals, particularly rare earth elements, move through the environment using stable isotopes, which helps identify areas with higher concentrations and informs sustainable resource use.
Click below to learn more!
A Multidisciplinary Approach That Considers Occurrence, Geochemistry, Bioavailability, and Toxicity to Prioritize Critical Minerals for Environmental Research
Tracing metal sources and groundwater flow paths in the Upper Animas River watershed using rare earth elements and stable isotopes
USGS Minerals Resources Program
Strategic Research Initiatives for Understanding Effects of Uranium Mining
By integrating innovative research methods and creative communication strategies, we aim to address critical issues related to uranium and critical minerals in a variety of ecosystems. Uranium is important in the nation's infrastructure as it is used as a fuel source for nuclear energy and in the medical field for radiation therapy. Focused studies on uranium and natural resources include:
- Biological Research: We are investigating how aquatic insects in the Grand Canyon take up uranium from spring water, including the influence of water, diet, sediment chemistry, and biological factors.
- Geologically Based Environmental Assessments: A new method for conducting geoenvironmental assessments was developed and tested for uranium deposits in the Texas Coastal Plain, to identify potential environmental effects related to uranium resource development.
- Multidisciplinary Research Approach: Our research devises a multidisciplinary approach that considers occurrence, geochemistry, bioavailability, and toxicity to prioritize critical minerals for research.
- Ecological Risk Assessments: We are conducting ecological risk assessments at uranium mines near the Grand Canyon to evaluate effects of mining on plants and wildlife.
Science to Address Challenges and Enhance Mineral Resource Development
The partnership between the USGS Environmental Health Program and the USGS Minerals Research Program focuses on improving the understanding and use of critical minerals, including rare earth elements, within the United States. This collaboration aims to assess not only the resource potential but to create a comprehensive understanding of mineral resources life cycle. The Environmental Health Minerals Life Cycle Integrated Science Team is equipped to tackle future challenges related to mineral-resource development.
- Demonstration Sites for Resource Recovery: Establish demonstration sites to tackle scientific and logistical issues related to recovering resources from previously mined materials. Example: At the Katherine Mine (AZ), in-depth studies have been conducted to analyze mill tailings that contain valuable silver and gold, aiming to explore feasible extraction methods.
- Repurposing previously mined materials: Finding new uses for materials that have already been extracted from the earth, rather than discarding them or leaving them unused.
- Impact of Wildfires on Metal Availability: Conduct investigations to assess how wildfires influence the availability of metals in soils, particularly focusing on how mineral composition affects metal mobility at the terrestrial-aquatic interface. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for effective land and water resource management post-wildfire.
- Recovery of critical elements from natural water sources: Analyzing geochemical parameters and conditions conducive to the direct extraction of valuable elements from mine drainage and geothermal discharges.
- Economically Viable Mining Sites: Identify mining material sites that are currently economically viable to mine using today's technology but are at risk of erosion and transportation downstream during flood events.
- Decision Support Tool: Developing a decision support tool that will include measures of risk, remediation potential, and cost-benefit analytics to guide and expedite decision making efforts for development of mineral resources.
Click below to read more about USGS Critical Mineral and Uranium Research
Seasonal Activity and Diets of Bats at Uranium Mines and Adjacent Areas near the Grand Canyon
Outlining Potential Biomarkers of Exposure and Effect to Critical Minerals: Nutritionally Essential Trace Elements and the Rare Earth Elements
Biogeochemical Controls of Uranium Bioavailability from the Dissolved Phase in Natural Freshwaters
Aquatic insect accumulation of uranium at spring outflows in the Grand Canyon region as influenced by aqueous and sediment geochemistry and biological factors
Terrestrial ecological risk analysis via dietary exposure at uranium mine sites in the Grand Canyon watershed (Arizona, USA)
Geoenvironmental Assessment Method
Natural and anthropogenic processes affecting radon releases during mining and early stage reclamation activities, Pinenut uranium mine, Arizona, USA
Balancing Natural Resource Use and Extraction of Uranium and Other Elements in the Grand Canyon Region
Study Reveals Processes that Control Uranium Bioavailability in a Freshwater Snail—Relevance to Aquatic Biota in the Grand Canyon Area
Geochemistry and hydrology of perched groundwater springs: assessing elevated uranium concentrations at Pigeon Spring relative to nearby Pigeon Mine, Arizona (USA)
Uranium and Arsenic in Groundwater in the Grand Canyon Region
Laboratory Simulation of Groundwater Along Uranium-Mining-Affected Flow Paths Near the Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA
Follow the Minerals Resource Life Cycle Integrated Science Team
Critical minerals are essential to the Nation’s economy and security. Demand for critical minerals is increasing, and it is essential to balance the societal need for these minerals with efforts to understand the effects of mining on other natural resources and to develop techniques to minimize these effects. The USGS Minerals Resources Life Cycle Integrated Science Team (IST) focuses on the life cycle of mineral resources in the environment.
Enhancing Knowledge of the Critical Minerals Life Cycle Through Scientific Research
Understanding the life cycle of critical minerals, including rare earth elements, is essential for reliable and balanced development of technology, and informed decision-making. Within the USGS Ecosystem Mission Area, the Environmental Health Programs, Minerals Resources Life Cycle IST aims to enhance understanding and guide best practices through comprehensive research, to:
- Inform safe and efficient handling of minerals from extraction sites to processing and storage facilities.
- Guide effective reuse of mining by-products.
- Understand perceived and actual risks linked to source, transport, and exposure from mining-generated materials during various stages of the mineral lifecycle including at abandoned mines.
Click on these links to learn more about the USGS Ecosystems Mission Area and Critical Minerals!
USGS research studies are designed to achieve several key objectives:
- Characterize the types of minerals and the chemical properties of ores and their associated by-products, aimed at maximizing recovery of valuable materials while minimizing the release of materials that may cause harm.
- Understand the movement of minerals and their by-products through the surrounding landscape, effects on plants and animals including fish and wildlife populations, and potential effects on drinking and recreational water sources.
- Enhance mineral resource studies by increasing the understanding of potential risks of mineral resource development, working closely with scientists within the USGS Energy and Minerals Mission Area.
Integrated science approach for understanding the minerals lifecycle
Mining activities can expose workers and surrounding populations to metals and other materials. The science undertaken by the Environmental Health Program, Minerals Resources Life Cycle IST provides data to inform potential mining-related exposure. These data improve understanding of how mining-related elements move, change, are available to living organisms, and how they affect other natural resources, including humans. Research is accomplished at a range of scales, including:
- Laboratory-Based Studies: Conduct controlled experiments to understand how different elements behave, interact, accumulate, and the effects of exposure on plants and wildlife.
- Modeling: Create simple models to help predict how different elements behave in the environment. These models will show how elements move, build up in different places, and how people and wildlife might be exposed to them. This information will be useful for assessing potential risks and making informed decisions.
- Targeted Field Studies: Execute investigations at field sites in watersheds across the Nation to collect real-world data, to assess laboratory and modeling results, and understand effects of the mining life cycle on drinking, agricultural, and recreational waters.
With this information, land managers, decision-makers, and the public and private sectors can identify and take actions to reduce risks to nearby resources and communities during mineral resource development and extraction.
Current Initiatives of the Minerals Lifecycle Science Team
The Minerals Lifecycle Science Team is collaborating with the USGS Energy and Minerals Mission Area, the Mineral Resources Program, and various partners on initiatives related to mine material research and reclamation, particularly for critical minerals vital to the nation's economy and national security. Key activities include:
- Framework for Critical Minerals: Developing a comprehensive approach to evaluate the occurrence, chemistry, availability, and toxicity of critical minerals to prioritize research.
- Risk Assessment Method: Creating an affordable method to assess environmental health risks at abandoned mine sites, enhancing risk evaluation beyond basic screening.
- Mineral Recovery: Identifying steps to detect and recover resources at old mine sites and using water-quality data to trace rare earth element deposits.
- Critical Mineral Analysis: Utilizing new techniques for analyzing and recovering critical minerals from mine drainage.
- Tracking Metal Movement: Studying how metals, particularly rare earth elements, move through the environment using stable isotopes, which helps identify areas with higher concentrations and informs sustainable resource use.
Click below to learn more!
A Multidisciplinary Approach That Considers Occurrence, Geochemistry, Bioavailability, and Toxicity to Prioritize Critical Minerals for Environmental Research
Tracing metal sources and groundwater flow paths in the Upper Animas River watershed using rare earth elements and stable isotopes
USGS Minerals Resources Program
Strategic Research Initiatives for Understanding Effects of Uranium Mining
By integrating innovative research methods and creative communication strategies, we aim to address critical issues related to uranium and critical minerals in a variety of ecosystems. Uranium is important in the nation's infrastructure as it is used as a fuel source for nuclear energy and in the medical field for radiation therapy. Focused studies on uranium and natural resources include:
- Biological Research: We are investigating how aquatic insects in the Grand Canyon take up uranium from spring water, including the influence of water, diet, sediment chemistry, and biological factors.
- Geologically Based Environmental Assessments: A new method for conducting geoenvironmental assessments was developed and tested for uranium deposits in the Texas Coastal Plain, to identify potential environmental effects related to uranium resource development.
- Multidisciplinary Research Approach: Our research devises a multidisciplinary approach that considers occurrence, geochemistry, bioavailability, and toxicity to prioritize critical minerals for research.
- Ecological Risk Assessments: We are conducting ecological risk assessments at uranium mines near the Grand Canyon to evaluate effects of mining on plants and wildlife.
Science to Address Challenges and Enhance Mineral Resource Development
The partnership between the USGS Environmental Health Program and the USGS Minerals Research Program focuses on improving the understanding and use of critical minerals, including rare earth elements, within the United States. This collaboration aims to assess not only the resource potential but to create a comprehensive understanding of mineral resources life cycle. The Environmental Health Minerals Life Cycle Integrated Science Team is equipped to tackle future challenges related to mineral-resource development.
- Demonstration Sites for Resource Recovery: Establish demonstration sites to tackle scientific and logistical issues related to recovering resources from previously mined materials. Example: At the Katherine Mine (AZ), in-depth studies have been conducted to analyze mill tailings that contain valuable silver and gold, aiming to explore feasible extraction methods.
- Repurposing previously mined materials: Finding new uses for materials that have already been extracted from the earth, rather than discarding them or leaving them unused.
- Impact of Wildfires on Metal Availability: Conduct investigations to assess how wildfires influence the availability of metals in soils, particularly focusing on how mineral composition affects metal mobility at the terrestrial-aquatic interface. Understanding these dynamics is crucial for effective land and water resource management post-wildfire.
- Recovery of critical elements from natural water sources: Analyzing geochemical parameters and conditions conducive to the direct extraction of valuable elements from mine drainage and geothermal discharges.
- Economically Viable Mining Sites: Identify mining material sites that are currently economically viable to mine using today's technology but are at risk of erosion and transportation downstream during flood events.
- Decision Support Tool: Developing a decision support tool that will include measures of risk, remediation potential, and cost-benefit analytics to guide and expedite decision making efforts for development of mineral resources.
Click below to read more about USGS Critical Mineral and Uranium Research