RESTON, Va. — The U.S. Geological Survey has awarded nearly $3 million in cooperative agreements to state geological surveys to study critical minerals in the materials left over from mining at active and legacy sites.
“The USGS is mapping the critical minerals needed for the U.S. economy and national security across the country. Mine waste from former and active mines is an accessible, aboveground source of those minerals, and these agreements allow the states to collaborate with us on work that’s important for the nation – with potential to offset the cost of cleanup, and grow the mineral economy in their states,” said Jamey Jones, science coordinator of the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative.
The USGS has reached agreements with the geological surveys of 13 states: Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kentucky, Michigan, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Virginia and Washington.
The USGS will help support states as they work on mine waste inventory – going through databases and historic records of legacy mining to contribute to the national mine waste inventory the USGS is compiling, and mine waste characterization – going out into the field to sample and analyze the minerals present in mine waste. This helps determine the presence and quantity of critical minerals, as well as potential challenges for remediation.
Critical minerals play a vital role in supporting the economy, national defense and security, emerging technologies and energy independence. Many critical minerals are known to occur alongside more commonly mined minerals. Germanium, for example, is commonly found alongside lead and zinc and is needed for high-tech electronics and optical uses that were not even invented when many U.S. lead mines ceased operation. China, currently the largest producer of germanium, restricts exports to the U.S.
The funding is part of a broader initiative to explore the potential of these resources. On July 24, the Department of the Interior announced that it is taking decisive steps to recover critical minerals essential to America’s economic strength, national defense, and energy future from mine waste, coal refuse, tailings and abandoned uranium mines. This effort aligns with Executive Order 14241, Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production, and Secretary’s Order 3436, Unlocking Critical and Strategic Minerals from Mine Waste, Cutting Red Tape, and Restoring American Dominance in Strategic Mineral Production. The Secretary’s Order calls on the USGS to map and inventory publicly owned mine waste resources as a first step in identifying opportunities to recover critical minerals from these wastes.
The cooperative agreements are offered through the USGS Earth MRI, a partnership with state geological surveys, industry and educational institutions. Since 2019, Earth MRI has modernized knowledge of geology and mapped critical mineral potential in more than 36% of priority areas nationwide, using cutting-edge airborne mapping methods such as lidar, geophysics, and hyperspectral surveys. New data collection and critical mineral mapping under Earth MRI is propelling efforts to make once-in-a-generation advances in the nation’s geologic and geophysical data collections and critical minerals mapping.