Mineral System Life Cycles
Mineral System Life Cycles
Understanding potential and existing environmental impacts of mineral resources and their extraction promotes sustainable development of needed mineral materials and responsible stewardship of our natural resources.
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Emerging Geoenvironmental Issues Related to Proposed Mining in the Lake Superior Region
We are studying environmental issues related to mining, and potential mining, in the Great Lakes region, continuing the study of characterizing baseline geochemistry of several watersheds in Minnesota and Michigan, examining the potential for aquatic toxicity from metals, and examining the acid-neutralizing and acid-generating potentials of mine waste, and the environmental, and possible human...
Sources, Forms, Extractability of Metals in Non-Ore Deposit Sources
This project explored potential recovery and environmental consequences of metals in mining and mineral processing wastes as a function of ore deposit geology, and in debris from demolished or burned buildings.
Life Cycles of Byproduct Critical Minerals
Project objectives are to 1) assess the overall life cycle of selected byproduct critical elements tellurium (Te), indium (In), gallium (Ga), and germanium (Ge), 2) perform an assessment of critical element resources and examine the processes and conditions controlling the concentration of byproduct critical elements by deposit type, and 3) improve understanding of the surficial geochemistry of...
New Applications of Hyperspectral Imaging to Delineate Critical Minerals Concentrated in Regolith and Mine Waste Materials
Our project will develop new and innovative spectral methods and remote sensing tools for understanding how critical minerals are concentrated by weathering, regolith/soil formation, mining, runoff and ore processing. These tools will help us to use mineralogy derived from spectral measurements (lab, field, and remote sensing) to help delineate vectors towards recoverable resources and to identify...
Geoenvironmental Health Models of Mineral Deposits
Our objectives were to: 1) complete bioaccessibility testing on monominerallic samples of important ore and gangue minerals for selected elements of toxicological concern, and 2) create a compendium of mineral deposit geoenvironmental health models.
Application of the National-Scale Soil Geochemical and Mineralogical Data for the Conterminous U.S.
Project goals were to produce interpretive products based on the existing national-scale geochemical and mineralogical data and maps for soils of the conterminous U.S.
Backgrounds and Baselines
This project developed a geochemical information base through studies ranging in scale from site-specific to regional and national.
USGS Abandoned Mine Lands Initiative
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted an Abandoned Mine Lands (AML) Initiative during the fiscal years 1997 through 2001 to provide technical assistance in support of Federal Land Management Agency (FLMA) actions to remediate contamination associated with abandoned hard rock mining activities. This initiative was part of a larger strategy by the U.S. Department of the Interior and the U.S...