Minerals at Risk and for Emerging Technologies

Staff

Tasks

Project summary:

Our technologically complex economy is increasingly reliant on the use of scarce metals and minerals, such as indium, rare-earth elements, and platinum-group metals. Demand for these metals and minerals is increasing rapidly, straining the ability of current supply sources to expand capacity and exposing the national economy to greater vulnerability to supply disruptions. USGS mineral resource assessment efforts to date have focused on common metals and minerals, such as copper and zinc, that are consumed in large quantities and are usually a primary mine product. Rare metals and minerals may be primary industrial products, but are more often by-products commonly recovered at metal refineries, or by other less conventional methods. To assess resources of scarce minerals and metals, the USGS must investigate the occurrence of these commodities in commonly mined ores, as well as in rare or little known deposit types, and our technological ability to recover these materials. The USGS will undertake this effort by redirecting personnel and resources of industrial minerals research efforts to a suite of critical minerals and materials used in industry.

Major objectives of the project:

The primary objective of this project is to convene a workshop to be held with industry and other interested parties to help determine national research needs in the assessment of scarce minerals and metals with industrial applications. The results of the workshop will guide planning for new efforts to address these needs and to develop a plan for redirecting research personnel and resources from current industrial minerals research to future research on scarce industrial metals and minerals. An effort to update USGS deposit models to include scarce metals and minerals will start this fiscal year, and continue with the new project being developed. Promising new analytical methods for determining the mode of occurrence of these metals and minerals in commonly mined ores will be tested for more extensive use in future efforts.