Evidence of previous exploration

A geologist, George Case, stands in front of an adit, an entrance to an underground mine, in the Graphite Creek Deposit on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. Mining in this area previously took place from roughly 1900-1916.  Graphite is a critical mineral which the US relies entirely on imports.  The importance of graphite in new technologies such as electric car batteries has sparked the interest in the deposit again and the area is currently in active exploration.  The USGS has been studying the geology of graphite deposits to learn more about how they form and where they are likely to be found, to improve the future domestic supply chain.