Characterization and Identification of Critical Mineral Resources

Powders of six rare earth element oxides from USGS Scientific Investigations Report 2010–5220. Photo by Peggy Greb, Agricultural Research Center of United States Department of Agriculture.

Global demand for critical mineral commodities is on the rise with increasing applications in consumer products, computers, automobiles, aircraft, and other advanced technology products. Much of this demand growth is driven by new technologies that increase energy efficiency and decrease reliance on fossil fuels. We are expanding our research and assessment activities to address the need for more up-to-date information on the nation's and the world's critical mineral resources.

Current Studies

• Beryllium: Economic Geology, Material Flow, and Global Importance of a Key Critical Mineral on the International Scene
• Continental Scale Geophysics — Integrated Approaches to Delineate Prospective Environments for Critical Metals
• Critical Elements in Carbonatites: From Exploration Targets to Elemental Distribution
• Geophysical Studies on the Architecture of Large Igneous Systems Hosting Magmatic Ore Deposits
• GIS-based Analysis of Potential for Concentrations of Mineral Commodities in Alaska
• Heavy Mineral Sand Resources in the Southeastern United States
• Iron Oxide-Copper-Cobalt-Gold-Rare Earth Element Deposits of Southeast Missouri—From the Ore Deposit Scale to a Global Deposit Model
• Lithium Clays as a Source of Lithium and a Buffer for Lithium Concentration in Brines—An Improved Understanding for Better Deposit Models and Exploration Tools
• Mineville, Eastern Adirondacks: Geophysical and Geologic studies
• Petrology, Tectonic Setting, and Potential for Concentration of Rare Earth Elements (REE) and High Field Strenth Elements (HFSE) in the High-K Darby and Kachauik Plutons, Seward Peninsula, Alaska
• Platinum-Group Elements in Layered Intrusions Associated with the Midcontinent Rift
• Rare Earth Element Accumulation Processes Resulting in High-Value Metal Enrichments in Regolith
• Rare Earth Element Deposits in the Southeast Mojave Desert
• Tellurium in igneous related epithermal precious metal deposits in Colorado and New Mexico
• Yellow Pine Antimony-Gold Deposits at Stibnite, Idaho

Completed Studies

• Advanced Geophysical Imaging of the Elk Creek Carbonatite
• Airborne Geophysics for Rare Earth Element Deposits
• Alaska Critical Minerals Cooperative
• Assessment of the Platinum-Group Element Resources in Mafic-Ultramafic Igneous Intrusions of the Midcontinent Rift System, Lake Superior Region
• ASTeroid Resource Assesment (ASTRA)
• Bokan Mountain, Rare Earth Elements Deposit, Alaska
• Critical Metals in Black Shales
• Fluids in REE Ore Genesis
• Geophysical and Geochemical Approaches to Evaluating Rare Earth Element Potential in the Southeastern U.S.
• Rare Earth Element Unconventional Resources in High Sulfidation Systems
• Setting and Origin of Iron Oxide-Cu-CO-Au-REE Deposits of Southeast Missouri
• Spectroscopic Investigations of REE Minerals for Use with Imaging, Laboratory and Core Scanning Spectrometers
• Unconventional Resources of Rare Elements: The Bearing of Source and Process on the Genesis of Residual Deposits
• United States Critical Mineral Resources in a Global Context