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Publications

Results from our Program’s research and minerals information activities are published in USGS publications series as well as in outside journals.  To follow Minerals Information Periodicals, subscribe to the Mineral Periodicals RSS feed.

Filter Total Items: 2294

Critical minerals in Climax-type magmatic-hydrothermal systems

Today’s global economy is challenged to meet the growing demand for commodities used in existing and emerging advanced technologies. Critical minerals are commodities found in a wide variety of ore deposits that are vital to the economic or national security of individual nations that are vulnerable to supply disruption. The U.S. Geological Survey is striving to advance understanding of critical m

Authors
Celestine N. Mercer, Mario A Guzman, Albert H. Hofstra, Joshua Mark Rosera

Critical minerals in subduction-related magmatic-hydrothermal systems of the United States

During the World War and Cold War eras (1910s–1990s), domestic consumption of numerous mineral commodities relied increasingly on imported supplies. Consumption reliance has since expanded to include 50 “critical minerals” (elements and mineral commodities) that are mostly to entirely imported and subject to curtailment by suppliers or supply chain disruption. New domestic supplies of critical min
Authors
Peter Vikre, David John, Niki E. Wintzer, Fleetwood Koutz, Frederick Graybeal, Chris Dail, David C. Annis

Stable isotope constraints on the source of ore fluids for the Hicks Dome REE+Y-HFSE-fluorspar deposit

Hicks Dome is comprised of coarse crystalline Mississippi Valley Type deposits at shallow levels and an enigmatic, fine-grained fluorite, rare earth elements, Y, high field strength elements, Be, and Ba rich deposit at deeper levels. Phyllosilicates from a lamprophyre dike and a breccia from two Hicks Dome drill cores were sampled to resolve the fluid history of the entire deposit using light stab
Authors
Julia A. McIntosh, Craig A. Johnson, Allen K. Andersen, Albert H. Hofstra

Can the mining industry meet global demand for critical minerals?

No abstract available.
Authors
Jeffrey L. Mauk, Jonathan Andrew Funk, Nick Karl

Local topography and streambed hydraulic conductivity influence riparian groundwater age and groundwater-surface water connection

The western U.S. is experiencing increasing rain to snow ratios due to climate change, and scientists are uncertain how changing recharge patterns will affect future groundwater-surface water connection. We examined how watershed topography and streambed hydraulic conductivity impact groundwater age and stream discharge at eight sites along a headwater stream within the Manitou Experimental Forest
Authors
Sara R. Warix, Alexis Navarre-Sitchler, Andrew H. Manning, Kamini Singha

Fluorine-rich mafic lower crust in the southern Rocky Mountains: The role of pre-enrichment in generating fluorine-rich silicic magmas and porphyry Mo deposits

Fluorine-rich granites and rhyolites occur throughout the southern Rocky Mountains, but the origin of F-enrichment has remained unclear. We test if F-enrichment could be inherited from ancient mafic lower crust by: (1) measuring amphibole compositions, including F and Cl contents, of lower crustal mafic granulite xenoliths from northern Colorado to determine if they are unusually enriched in halog
Authors
Joshua Mark Rosera, Ryan Edward Frazer, Ryan D. Mills, Kristin Jacob, Sean P. Gaynor, Drew S. Coleman, G. Lang Farmer

Roles of regional structures and country-rock facies in defining mineral belts in central Idaho mineral province with detail for Yellow Pine and Thunder Mountain mining districts

The central Idaho metallogenic province hosts numerous mineral deposit types. These include Late Cretaceous precious-polymetallic vein deposits, amagmatic Paleocene–Eocene breccia-hosted gold-tungsten-antimony deposits, and Eocene mercury deposits in metasedimentary roof pendants and in Late Cretaceous granitoids. Hot-springs gold deposits in Eocene volcanic rocks are also included in the central
Authors
Karen Lund, John N. Aleinikoff, Christopher Holm-Denoma

First observation of the ground-state electron-capture of 40K

Potassium-40 is a widespread, naturally occurring isotope whose radioactivity impacts estimated geological ages spanning billions of years, nuclear structure theory, and subatomic rare-event searches—including those for dark matter and neutrinoless double-beta decay. The decays of this long-lived isotope must be precisely known for its use as a geochronometer, and to account for its presence in lo
Authors
L. Hariasz, M. Stukel, P.C.F. Di Stefano, B.C. Rasco, K.P. Rykaczewski, N.T. Brewer, D.W. Stracener, Y. Liu, Z. Gai, C. Rouleau, J. B. Carter, J. Kostensalo, J. Suhonen, H. Davis, E.D. Lukosi, K.C. Goetz, R.K. Grzywacz, M. Mancuso, F. Petricca, A. Fijalkowska, M. Wolinska-Cichocka, J. Ninkovic, P. Lechner, R.B. Ickert, Leah E. Morgan, P.R. Renne, I. Yavin

Rare 40K decay with implications for fundamental physics and geochronology

Potassium-40 is a widespread, naturally occurring isotope whose radioactivity impacts subatomic rare-event searches, nuclear structure theory, and estimated geological ages. A predicted electron-capture decay directly to the ground state of argon-40 has never been observed. The KDK (potassium decay) collaboration reports strong evidence of this rare decay mode. A blinded analysis reveals a nonzero
Authors
M. Stukel, L. Hariasz, P.C.F. Di Stefano, B.C. Rasco, K.P. Rykaczewski, N.T. Brewer, D.W. Stracener, Y. Liu, Z. Gai, C. Rouleau, J. B. Carter, J. Kostensalo, J. Suhonen, H. Davis, E.D. Lukosi, K.C. Goetz, R.K. Grzywacz, M. Mancuso, F. Petricca, A. Fijalkowska, M. Wolinska-Cichocka, J. Ninkovic, P. Lechner, R.B. Ickert, Leah E. Morgan, P.R. Renne, I. Yavin

Compressional-wave seismic velocity, bulk density, and their empirical relations for geophysical modeling of the Midcontinent Rift System in the Lake Superior region

Compressional-wave seismic velocity (velocity) and bulk density (density) data were compiled from published sources for rock suites and earth materials that are significant for geophysical modeling of the Mesoproterozoic Midcontinent Rift System in the Lake Superior region. The data include laboratory measurements of outcrop and drill core samples, seismic refraction studies, and a sonic log from
Authors
V. J. S. Grauch

Distribution of rare earth and other critical elements in lignites from the Eocene Jackson Group, Texas

Coal is increasingly evaluated as a source of rare earth elements (REEs) in the United States to address the overreliance on imported REEs. The objective of this study was to assess the distribution of REEs in lignites from selected mining areas in the Texas Gulf Coastal Plain region. Thirty-one archived lignite and rock samples previously collected by the U.S. Geological Survey were analyzed for
Authors
James C. Hower, Peter D. Warwick, Bridget R. Scanlon, Robert C. Reedy, Tristan M. Childress

Automated georeferencing and feature extraction of geologic maps and mineral sites

The predictive power of mineral prospectivity analysis depends on high quality, spatially accurate, analysis-ready datasets. Of paramount importance are geologic maps and mineral site data, but the state of readiness for utilizing these datasets remains sub-optimal for advanced computational techniques. As the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) fulfils its mission to map the distribution of critical mi
Authors
Graham W. Lederer, Joshua Mark Rosera, Margaret A. Goldman, Garth E. Graham, Asitang Mishra, Amanda Towler, Brian Wilson, Dustin Graf, Michael Milano, Elizabeth Roberts, Gabrielle Hedrick, Carsten Oertel, Anastassios Dardas, Thomas McEntee