Critical Mineral Resources
Critical Mineral Resources
Demand for critical mineral commodities is on the rise with increasing applications in consumer products such as phones and tablets. Research and assessment activities address the need for more up-to-date information on the nation's and the world's critical mineral resources.
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Critical Mineral Resources in Heavy Mineral Sands of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain
In many parts of the southeastern U.S., dark-colored sands can be seen at beaches or beneath soil. These sands contain titanium, zirconium, and rare earth elements, which are considered critical mineral resources. Such sands are present in areas from the coast to a hundred miles or more inland beneath soil within the Atlantic Coastal Plain Province. In some locales they are concentrated enough to...
Systems Approach to Critical Minerals Inventory, Research, and Assessment
This project supports the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (EarthMRI) by developing a mineral systems approach for defining focus areas. This project is investigating domestic sources of critical minerals in three sequential stages: inventory, research, and assessment. 1) Inventory the abundance of critical minerals in ore, minerals, and processed materials from major deposits in each system...
Antimony In and Around the Yellow Pine Deposit, Central Idaho
Project objectives are to document the origin of the Yellow Pine gold-antimony deposit and, by extension, the origin of this deposit type. Our goal is to understand the structural, tectonic, and magmatic setting of the deposit, the character of the ore-transporting fluids, the conditions of ore deposition, and the regional stratigraphic framework and geochemical ore controls of metasedimentary...
Rare Earth Element Accumulation Processes Resulting in High-Value Metal Enrichments in Regolith
The Southeastern United States contains numerous granites of the type that contain high concentrations of rare earth elements. We are conducting studies of these granites to advance rare earth element (REE) resource identification and assessment by resulting in an improved understanding of the fundamental source rock types, modes and occurrences, and geochemical parameters necessary for the mass...
Platinum-Group Elements in Layered Intrusions Associated with the Midcontinent Rift
Platinum-group elements (PGE) are critical commodities. They are essential for the U.S. economy; however the U.S. imports about 90 percent of the platinum-group elements that we need to use. The project objective is to assess the Duluth Complex and related mafic-ultramafic intrusions in the 1.1 Ga Midcontinent Rift System in the Lake Superior region. Our current activities focus on a Keweenawan...
Beryllium: Economic Geology, Material Flow, and Global Importance of a Key Critical Mineral
Beryllium (Be) is a critical metal mineral commodity with unique chemical properties, making it indispensable to the computer, telecommunication, aerospace, medical, defense, and nuclear industries. We are studying known deposits of beryllium to determine where undiscovered beryllium resources might be found, analyzing how and where beryllium becomes concentrated in Earth’s crust, gathering a...
Life Cycles of Byproduct Critical Minerals
Project objectives are to 1) assess the overall life cycle of selected byproduct critical elements tellurium (Te), indium (In), gallium (Ga), and germanium (Ge), 2) perform an assessment of critical element resources and examine the processes and conditions controlling the concentration of byproduct critical elements by deposit type, and 3) improve understanding of the surficial geochemistry of...
Critical commodity studies, Stillwater Complex, Montana and Duluth Complex, Minnesota
Scientific research can make our resource assessments of critical minerals more effective. This project focuses on the Stillwater Complex, Montana, which has rocks enriched in platinum-group elements (PGE), chromium, cobalt, and nickel. Project objectives are to update databases, evaluate new mapping techniques, document new styles of mineralization, and document and support research on the...
Tellurium in Igneous-related Epithermal Precious Metal Deposits in Colorado and New Mexico
The project aims to improve our understanding of the causes of tellurium enrichment in epithermal precious metal deposits, and strengthen our ability to assess the Nation's tellurium deposits. Tellurium is used in solar panel technologies and is considered a critical mineral. Epithermal deposits of this type represent a prospective future source of tellurium.
Petrology, Tectonic Setting, and Potential for Concentration of Rare Earth Elements (REE) and High Field Strength Elements (HFSE) in the High-K Darby and Kachauik Plutons, Seward Peninsula, Alaska
One of the geologic environments that host rare earth and other critical and strategic element deposits are alkaline intrusive rocks.
Rare Earth Element Deposits in the Southeast Mojave Desert
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...
Continental Scale Geophysics — Integrated Approaches to Delineate Prospective Environments for Critical Metals
Regional geophysical data that are available over continental scales such as magnetic, gravity, and magnetotelluric data can provide a foundation towards identifying and understanding the footprints and deep plumbing systems underlying these important ore systems. Our project will use continental-scale geophysical data to map the locations of deep crustal and mantle structures that may act as...