North of 60 Mining News - The mining newspaper for Alaska and Canada's North

The U.S. Geological Survey and Association of American State Geologists have approved $1.1 million of funding for mapping and geological surveys aimed at gaining a better understanding of Alaska's critical minerals potential.

This funding includes $634,000 in grants to the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys for geologic mapping and geochemical analyses for an area of the Western Tanacross region near Alaska's eastern border with Canada's Yukon; and $500,000 in USGS funding to support new airborne geophysics surveys in the Yukon-Tanana uplands of Alaska's Eastern Interior region.

This work is part of a wider federal effort to identify critical mineral and metals in the US.

In 2017, President Trump issued Executive Order 13817, a Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals. This executive order called on agencies across the federal government to develop a strategy to reduce the nation's susceptibility to critical mineral supply disruptions.

Shortly following the presidential order and based on input from USGS, the Department of Interior published a list of 35 minerals and metals deemed critical to the economic wellbeing and security of the US. This list has formed the foundation for a federal critical minerals strategy called for by the critical minerals executive order.

To further inform the strategy, USGS launched Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, or Earth MRI, to acquire geologic, geophysical, and topographic data to help characterize the distribution of critical minerals and identify areas in which more data would improve our understanding of undiscovered critical mineral resources.

The critical minerals mapping and geophysical surveys are being funded by Earth MRI.

"These new projects in Alaska represent the next step in our ambitious effort to improve our knowledge of the geologic framework in the United States and to identify areas that may have the potential to contain undiscovered critical mineral resources," said USGS Director Jim Reilly.

USGS has been working with Association of American State Geologists, a group that represents state geologists across the nation, to help prioritize targets for Earth MRI.

"The Earth MRI effort is an outgrowth of the strong partnership between the AASG members and the USGS," said Warren Day, Earth MRI lead scientist for the USGS. "The USGS is grateful for the scientific input and support from the state geological surveys, resulting in a robust body of information useful for many applications beyond mineral resources."

Alaska DGGS will focus on geologic mapping for critical mineral commodities like arsenic, bismuth, cobalt, indium, the platinum group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tellurium, tin, and tungsten.

In addition, the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys and USGS will conduct airborne geophysics surveys of the Yukon-Tanana Uplands with a focus on tin and tungsten.

The geologic mapping efforts, which are managed through the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, will refine scientific understanding of the geologic framework of areas of interest. In addition to helping identify mineral potential, these maps also support decisions about use of land, water, energy, and minerals and help to mitigate the impact of geologic hazards on communities.

Airborne geophysical surveys collect a combination of magnetic and radiometric data. Magnetic data can tell us the amount of magnetic minerals, primarily magnetite, in the exposed and deeply buried rocks; whereas the radiometric data indicates the relative amounts of potassium, uranium and thorium in the exposed rocks. This information allows scientists to help identify likely locations of particular rocks that can host minerals of interest, geothermal energy resources, groundwater and potential earthquake hazards in the region.

Earth MRI is a partnership between the USGS, state geological surveys and industry to acquire new geologic maps, geophysical surveys and lidar data to better understand the fundamental geologic framework of areas across the nation with potential for hosting critical mineral resources.

Author Bio

Shane Lasley, Publisher

Over his more than 16 years of covering mining and mineral exploration, Shane has become renowned for his ability to report on the sector in a way that is technically sound enough to inform industry insiders while being easy to understand by a wider audience.

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