Energy and Mineral Resource Studies

In an effort to better understand domestic resource potential, the USGS is investigating the genetic relationship between rare earth element deposits at Mountain Pass, California and Music Valley (Pinto Mountains, California) and extend these studies across a 130-km long belt of alkaline Proterozoic rocks in the southeast Mojave Desert. Such a combined study would significantly improve our...

We are collaborating with academic and industry geologists to develop a predictive model for lithium partitioning between lithium-bearing clays and lithium brines. We are conducting laboratory experiments to measure lithium partitioning between clays and brines. Experimental results will be compared with real-world data to learn whether this model may be used as an exploration tool for predicting...

The USGS Mineral Resources Program completed a comprehensive assessment and inventory of potential mineral resources covering approximately10 million acres of federal and adjacent lands in Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Wyoming and Montana.

We conducted linked investigations to address the magmatic-hydrothermal evolution, post-mineralization structural histories, and sources of host rocks and hydrothermal mineral components of three significant, subduction-related, Au-Ag districts in the Walker Lane structural zone in the western Great Basin.