Of the \$5.8 million to be awarded, \$4.3 million comes from investments made by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Every dollar awarded by the USGS is matched by the state geological surveys, doubling the impact of the federal investment. Investments made through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law have expanded the USGS National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program’s capacity to support preservation of physical samples (e.g., drill core and geochemical samples) and earth-science assets for future use, to advance new scientific discoveries, and to inform hazard mitigation, infrastructure development, critical minerals characterization and climate resilience.

The United States is dependent on many critical mineral resources for purposes as varied as smartphones, fertilizer, electric vehicles, defense applications and renewable energy. As increased attention is placed on the vulnerabilities of supply chains for these mineral resources, there is more interest in domestic resource potential.

The data and samples held by the state geological surveys are important for a variety of purposes, including identifying critical mineral potential, understanding ground-water resources and geologic hazards, and supporting infrastructure development. State geological surveys will contribute $5.8 million in matching funds to support these preservation projects.

The USGS National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program has supported state geological surveys in preserving their data and samples since 2007 through annual grants. This year, in addition to the more than \$800,000 in appropriated funding from the USGS National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program and the \$4.3 million invested from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the grants were also augmented by more than \$600,000 in appropriated funding from the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative.

Funding will better preserve data by allowing scientists to preserve samples that can be used to identify critical minerals, improve storage conditions for physical samples, and invest in new technological approaches to characterize, use and understand those samples. It will also drive development of modern digital infrastructure that will improve public access to and delivery of the preserved data and materials.

More information about the National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program and its grants can be found on the Program website. More information about how the USGS is investing funding received from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law can be found on the USGS BIL website. Keep up with our latest minerals science by following us on Twitter.