Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) Data Acquisition and Coordination
Science Center Objects
Project goal is to provide the scientific foundation for the entire Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) to develop a consistent method for prioritizing areas for the new national-scale data acquisition needed to identify undiscovered critical mineral resources. USGS, in coordination with State Geological Surveys, is acquiring new topographic, geologic mapping, and geophysical data to help characterize distribution of critical minerals and identify areas in which more data would improve understanding of critical mineral potential.
Science Issue and Relevance
The Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) is an outgrowth of Executive Order 13817 - A Federal Strategy To Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals and Department of the Interior Secretarial Order 3359 - Critical Mineral Independence and Security, which directed the USGS to develop a plan to improve the Nation's understanding of domestic critical mineral resources.
The USGS's initial role is to develop a plan for acquiring 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 as well as be applied to meet other national, regional or local needs. The Mineral Resources Program is partnering with the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program, the National Geospatial Program, the National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program, the Energy Resources Program, and State Geological Surveys to coordinate collection, interpretation, and dissemination of 3-dimensional geologic, geophysical, and topographic data across the Nation.
Approach
Goal: Develop a consistent and transparent method for prioritization of areas for new data acquisition at the national scale.
Outcome: A first ever national-scale identification of focus areas permissive for hosting critical minerals.
Approach: Use a "minerals systems" approach at the regional scale to inventory information and outline focus area tracts; this will guide data acquisition and allow aggregation at the national scale.
- Minerals Systems Approach: A framework summarizing the numerous relevant mineral deposit models that are known to host critical minerals into an abbreviated summary of deposit characteristics, exploration criteria, critical mineral products, byproducts, and coproducts, and geophysical techniques.
- Four Regional Working Groups: Four regional working groups of scientists from the USGS and State Geological Surveys (Eastern, Central, Western, Alaska) were formed and assigned teams of experts. These teams defined focus areas (spatial tracts) based on mineral systems, deposit types, status of mining, production history, etc., to identify areas permissive for hosting critical mineral-bearing deposit types, which if developed, would have significant impact on domestic critical mineral supply.
- Define Final Areas for Mapping: USGS worked with State Geological Surveys to determine final areas for mapping
- Data Acquisition: Earth MRI funding was deployed for data acquisition during Fiscal Years 2019 and 2020 to map 14 different areas and collect five major geophysical surveys.
- Data Delivery: Earth MRI is developing a single electronic access point through which data collected with Earth MRI funds will be available to the public.
Focus for Fiscal Years 2019-2020
Rare Earth Element (REE) Deposit Types
- Alkaline/peralkaline igneous systems
- Carbonatites
- Iron oxide-apatite (IOA) and iron oxide-copper-gold (IOCG) deposits
- Paleoplacers
- Regolith-hosted rare earth elements
Data Being Collected
- Geologic mapping
- Geophysics
- Topographic (LiDAR) data