Alaska is known to be a trove of the minerals and metals critical to every segment of the American economy. This critical mineral richness is despite the fact that Alaska is a vast state that remains largely underexplored. To help gain a better understanding of the Last Frontier State's potential to provide domestic supplies of the 50 critical minerals, the U.S. Geological Survey has allotted $6.75 million to explore specific regions of the state for 29 critical minerals.

The new funding includes grants to the Alaska Division of Geological & Geophysical Surveys (DGGS) for geologic mapping and sampling of a portion of the Yukon-Tanana Upland near the Canadian border.

In addition, the USGS funding will support new airborne geophysical surveys in the Kuskokwim River region and on the Seward Peninsula, areas of western Alaska known for their antimony, graphite, rare earth elements, tin, tungsten, and other critical minerals.

These programs are being carried out under the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, or Earth MRI, a cleverly named partnership between the USGS, Association of American State Geologists, and state geological surveys to better understand America's geology and mineral resource potential through new mapping, geophysics, and geochemical sampling.

USGS says the new Earth MRI surveys of Alaska are a key step in securing a reliable and sustainable supply of the critical minerals and metals that power everything from smartphones and household appliances to clean energy technologies like electric vehicle batteries and wind turbines.

"All the way back to the days of the Gold Rush, Alaska has been famous for its mineral wealth. These new projects represent the next steps in understanding the mineral potential for commodities that are critical to our national economy and defense," said USGS Director David Applegate.

Exploring the Yukon-Tanana Upland

While best known for its rich gold endowment, including being home to Kinross Gold Corp.'s Fort Knox Mine near Fairbanks and Northern Star Resources Ltd.'s Pogo Mine near Delta Junction, the Yukon-Tanana Upland is a past producer and future domestic source of many of the minerals and metals considered critical to the U.S.

Antimony, bismuth, platinum group metals, rare earth elements, tin, and tungsten are among the critical metals known to be found in potentially economic quantities across this roughly Maine-sized region of eastern Alaska.

This 100-mile-wide swath of Interior Alaska that extends about 300 miles west from the Yukon border to the town of Tanana at the confluence of the Yukon and Tanana rivers offers up another advantage when it comes to being a domestic source of critical minerals – excellent transportation infrastructure. This includes the Alaska Highway, which transects the Yukon-Tanana Upland from the Canadian border to the city of Fairbanks; a road that extends further west to Tanana; several highways that extend both north and south; and the Alaska Railroad that runs from Fairbanks to the port town of Seward.

This readily available access will make it easier and less expensive to transport metals from future critical mineral mines to market.

With the new Earth MRI funding, DGGS will focus on geologic mapping for critical mineral commodities in an area of the Yukon-Tanana Upland near Alaska's border with Canada's Yukon Territory.

The geologic mapping efforts, which are managed through the USGS National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, will refine our understanding of the geology underlying areas of interest.

In addition to gaining a better understanding of the critical mineral potential, USGS says these maps will support decisions about land use; provide information on water, energy, and minerals resources; and can help mitigate the impact of geologic hazards on communities.

Western Alaska geophysics

DGGS and USGS are also carrying out airborne magnetic and radiometric surveys of the Kuskokwim River region of Southwest, which has potential for antimony, gold, rare earths, tin, tungsten, and other critical minerals, and an airborne electromagnetic survey over the Seward Peninsula in areas with potential for graphite.

Several critical mineral prospects – including occurrences with antimony, arsenic, bismuth, niobium, rare earths, tin, and tungsten have been identified in the Kuskokwim Mountains.

The Earth MRI magnetic and radiometric geophysical surveys flown over the Kuskokwim region will provide geologists with data on the magnetic levels of natural radioactivity in the rocks, which will help pinpoint areas for further exploration for critical minerals.

The Seward Peninsula survey will primarily be looking for graphite, and for good reasons.

It is forecast that by 2030 the world will need roughly 5 million metric tons of graphite per year for the lithium-ion batteries going into electric vehicles. This compares to only about 1 million metric tons that were mined globally to meet the demands of all industrial sectors during 2021, according to "Mineral Commodity Summaries 2022," an annual report published by the USGS.

The Graphite Creek project on the Seward Peninsula, which is being advanced toward production by Graphite One Inc., is the largest known deposit of graphite in the U.S.

Airborne electromagnetic surveys, such as those to be flown over the Seward Peninsula as part of Earth MRI, help identify areas that are electrically conductive, such as areas with near-surface graphite.

In addition, USGS says the data compiled from these surveys can also be used to locate geothermal energy resources, groundwater resources, and potential earthquake hazards in the region.

"Data provided through these projects will have many applications and will create a foundation for better understanding of mineral and geothermal resources, earthquake hazard potential, carbon storage capacity and many other geoscience opportunities," said Applegate.

Part of a larger Alaska strategy

The 2022 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law provided the USGS with an additional US$74 million in funding to Earth MRI for accelerated mapping in areas with potential for hosting critical mineral resources both still in the ground and mine waste. Overall, the Infrastructure Law is providing a $510.7 million investment to USGS to advance scientific innovation and map critical minerals.

Given its known rich mineral endowment, even with being less explored and mapped than other states, Alaska is one of four priority regions in the U.S. being explored under Earth MRI

The critical mineral commodities that are included in the Yukon-Tanana Uplands, Kuskokwim, and Seward Peninsula research projects are:

• Arsenic – used in lumber preservatives, pesticides, and semiconductors

• Antimony – used in flame-proofing compounds, alloys, and rechargeable batteries.

• Bismuth – Stomach remedies, weighting agent, solar power and atomic research.

• Cobalt – used in rechargeable batteries and superalloys.

• Graphite – used for lubricants, lithium batteries, and fuel cells.

• Indium – mostly used in LCD screens for smartphones, monitors, and televisions.

• Platinum group metals – used for catalytic agents.

• Rare earths – primarily used in magnets, batteries, and electronics.

• Tantalum – used in electronic components, mostly capacitors, and in superalloys.

• Tellurium – used in solar cells, thermoelectric devices, and as a steelmaking alloy.

• Tin – used as protective coatings, alloys for steel, and solder for electronics.

• Tungsten – primarily used to make wear-resistant metals.

In addition to the Yukon-Tanana Uplands, Kuskokwim, and Seward Peninsula, USGS announced updates to two reports representing Earth MRI investigations on Alaska's potential for 38 of the 50 minerals and metals critical to the U.S.

These reports can be accessed at the links below:

Focus Areas for Data Acquisition for Potential Domestic Resources of 11 Critical Minerals in Alaska-Aluminum, Cobalt, Graphite, Lithium, Niobium, Platinum Group Elements, Rare Earth Elements, Tantalum, Tin, Titanium, and Tungsten.

Alaska Focus Area Definition for Data Acquisition for Potential Domestic Sources of Critical Minerals in Alaska for Antimony, Barite, Beryllium, Chromium, Fluorspar, Hafnium, Magnesium, Manganese, Uranium, Vanadium, and Zirconium.

*EDITOR'S NOTE: At the time of the original publication of these updated reports, rare earth elements and platinum group elements were each considered as one critical mineral. The 2022 U.S. Critical Minerals list includes 14 rare earths and elements, as well as five platinum group elements listed individually, which accounts for the 38 critical minerals. Also, uranium is not included on the critical minerals list due to being considered a fuel mineral, which falls outside the definition of minerals critical to the United States.

Further details on the 2022 critical minerals list can be read at USGS finalizes 2022 critical minerals list in the February 23, 2022 edition of Metal Tech News.

Information on proposed legislation that would allow uranium to be added back to the U.S. critical minerals list can be found at Without a word uranium becomes critical in the July 6, 2022 edition of Metal Tech News.

U.S. Geological Survey

A 2018 USGS map of areas of Alaska prospective for tin. More than 20 minerals and metals critical to the U.S. have been found associated with over 100 alluvial and hardrock tin occurrences that have been identified across the Last Frontier.

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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