Graham W. Lederer, Ph.D. (Former Employee)
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 14
Geochemistry of mafic and ultramafic rocks in the Eastern Blue Ridge of Virginia and North Carolina (ver. 2.0, September 2025) Geochemistry of mafic and ultramafic rocks in the Eastern Blue Ridge of Virginia and North Carolina (ver. 2.0, September 2025)
This data release includes whole rock (WR) geochemical data for 92 samples. Whole rock geochemistry data were analyzed at Actlabs in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. Rock samples were collected from 2020 to 2024 by Naomi Becker, Arthur Merschat, Mark Carter, and Kadie Steup. The whole rock geochemistry data characterize the composition of mafic and ultramafic (MUM) rocks in the Eastern Blue...
Locations of mines and prospects in Amelia County, Virginia Locations of mines and prospects in Amelia County, Virginia
Critical minerals are essential for the energy transition; to meet sustainability goals, production of these resources must significantly increase within the coming decades. For example, demand for lithium, an element essential for battery technologies found in many electronics and vehicles, is anticipated to increase by more than ten-fold by 2050 compared to current production. Critical...
Grade and tonnage data for tungsten vein and greisen deposits Grade and tonnage data for tungsten vein and greisen deposits
Tungsten is a mineral commodity critical for national security and the economy. Vein and greisen deposits host wolframite, a tungsten ore mineral that accounts for a significant portion of global mine production and resources. This data release contains updated resource information for globally distributed deposits that underpin grade and tonnage modeling efforts.
Grade and tonnage data for disseminated flake graphite deposits Grade and tonnage data for disseminated flake graphite deposits
Crystalline graphite is a primary material in lithium-ion battery anodes which are essential in moving towards green energy. Forecasts for 2040 anticipate an order of magnitude increase in graphite demand driven by sustainable development policies to reduce carbon emissions. Domestic production of graphite ceased in the 1980s after a steady decline post-World War I, meaning the United...
Training and validation data from the AI for Critical Mineral Assessment Competition (ver. 2.0, July 2025) Training and validation data from the AI for Critical Mineral Assessment Competition (ver. 2.0, July 2025)
Extracting useful and accurate information from scanned geologic and other earth science maps is a time-consuming and laborious process involving manual human effort. To address this limitation, the USGS partnered with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to run the AI for Critical Mineral Assessment Competition, soliciting innovative solutions for automatically...
Tungsten skarn mineral resource assessment of the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California - Geodatabase Tungsten skarn mineral resource assessment of the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California - Geodatabase
A mineral resource assessment for tungsten, a critical mineral commodity (see 'Related External Resources' section below) for the United States, was carried out by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for a portion of the Great Basin region, in western Nevada and eastern California, between latitudes 36N and 42N and longitudes 116W and 120W. This study (Lederer and others, in review)...
Filter Total Items: 19
Automated georeferencing and feature extraction of geologic maps and mineral sites 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...
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
Applications of natural language processing to geoscience text data and prospectivity modelling Applications of natural language processing to geoscience text data and prospectivity modelling
Geological maps are powerful models for visualizing the complex distribution of rock types through space and time. However, the descriptive information that forms the basis for a preferred map interpretation is typically stored in geological map databases as unstructured text data that are difficult to use in practice. Herein we apply natural language processing (NLP) to geoscientific...
Authors
Christopher J.M. Lawley, Michael G. Gadd, Mohammad Parsa, Graham W. Lederer, Garth E. Graham, Arianne Ford
Rock-to-metal ratios of the rare earth elements Rock-to-metal ratios of the rare earth elements
The relative quantities of ore mined and waste rock (i.e., overburden) removed to produce the rare earth elements—their rock-to-metal ratios—were calculated for 21 individual operations or regions covering nearly all mine production in 2018. The results indicate that the rock-to-metal ratios for the total rare earth elements ranged from a low of 1.6 × 101 to a high of 3.6 × 103, with...
Authors
Nedal T. Nassar, Graham W. Lederer, Abraham J. Padilla, Joseph Gambogi, Daniel James Cordier, Jamie L. Brainard, Joseph D. Lessard, Ryan Charab
Rock-to-metal ratio: A foundational metric for understanding mine wastes Rock-to-metal ratio: A foundational metric for understanding mine wastes
The quantity of ore mined and waste rock (i.e., overburden or barren rock) removed to produce a refined unit of a mineral commodity, its rock-to-metal ratio (RMR), is an important metric for understanding mine wastes and environmental burdens. In this analysis, we provide a comprehensive examination of RMRs for 25 commodities for 2018. The results indicate significant variability across
Authors
Nedal T. Nassar, Graham W. Lederer, Jamie L. Brainard, Abraham J. Padilla, Joseph D. Lessard
USGS 2020 critical minerals review USGS 2020 critical minerals review
Concerns about the lack of domestic production and availability of essential mineral raw materials were a recurring theme throughout the 20th century, particularly in the periods around armed conflicts (Congressional Research Service, 2019). These concerns resulted in the designation of particular minerals as “strategic” or “critical,” terms that commonly depend on the perspective of the...
Authors
Steven M. Fortier, Nedal T. Nassar, Karen D. Kelley, Graham W. Lederer, Jeffrey L. Mauk, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Warren C. Day, Robert R. Seal,
Tungsten skarn mineral resource assessment of the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California Tungsten skarn mineral resource assessment of the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California
A new quantitative mineral resource assessment for tungsten, a critical mineral commodity with highly concentrated production and a moderate risk of global supply disruption, was conducted for the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California. This assessment was part of a larger effort focusing on three regions in the United States and represents the first study of...
Authors
Graham W. Lederer, Federico Solano, Joshua Aaron Coyan, Kevin Denton, Kathryn E. Watts, Celestine N. Mercer, Damon Bickerstaff, Matthew Granitto
Non-USGS Publications**
Cottle, J., Lederer, G., and Larson, K., 2019, The monazite record of pluton assembly: Mapping Manaslu using petrochronology: Chemical Geology, v. 530, p. 119309.
Langille, J.M., Jessup, M.J., Cottle, J.M., Lederer, G., and Ahmad, T., 2012, Timing of metamorphism, melting and exhumation of the Leo Pargil dome, northwest India: Journal of Metamorphic Geology, v. 30, no. 8, p. 769–791.
Larson, K., Cottle, J., Lederer, G., and Rai, S.M., 2017, Defining shear zone boundaries using fabric intensity gradients: An example from the east-central Nepal Himalaya: Geosphere, v. 13, no. 3, p. 771–781.
Larson, K.P., Kellett, D.A., Cottle, J.M., King, J., Lederer, G., and Rai, S.M., 2016, Anatexis, cooling, and kinematics during orogenesis: Miocene development of the Himalayan metamorphic core, east-central Nepal: Geosphere, v. 12, no. 5, p. 1575–1593.
Lederer, G.W., Cottle, J.M., Jessup, M.J., Langille, J.M., and Ahmad, T., 2013, Timescales of partial melting in the Himalayan middle crust: insight from the Leo Pargil dome, northwest India: Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 166, no. 5, p. 1415–1441.
McKinney, S.T., Cottle, J.M., and Lederer, G.W., 2015, Evaluating rare earth element (REE) mineralization mechanisms in Proterozoic gneiss, Music Valley, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 127, no. 7/8, p. 1135–1152.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 14
Geochemistry of mafic and ultramafic rocks in the Eastern Blue Ridge of Virginia and North Carolina (ver. 2.0, September 2025) Geochemistry of mafic and ultramafic rocks in the Eastern Blue Ridge of Virginia and North Carolina (ver. 2.0, September 2025)
This data release includes whole rock (WR) geochemical data for 92 samples. Whole rock geochemistry data were analyzed at Actlabs in Ancaster, Ontario, Canada. Rock samples were collected from 2020 to 2024 by Naomi Becker, Arthur Merschat, Mark Carter, and Kadie Steup. The whole rock geochemistry data characterize the composition of mafic and ultramafic (MUM) rocks in the Eastern Blue...
Locations of mines and prospects in Amelia County, Virginia Locations of mines and prospects in Amelia County, Virginia
Critical minerals are essential for the energy transition; to meet sustainability goals, production of these resources must significantly increase within the coming decades. For example, demand for lithium, an element essential for battery technologies found in many electronics and vehicles, is anticipated to increase by more than ten-fold by 2050 compared to current production. Critical...
Grade and tonnage data for tungsten vein and greisen deposits Grade and tonnage data for tungsten vein and greisen deposits
Tungsten is a mineral commodity critical for national security and the economy. Vein and greisen deposits host wolframite, a tungsten ore mineral that accounts for a significant portion of global mine production and resources. This data release contains updated resource information for globally distributed deposits that underpin grade and tonnage modeling efforts.
Grade and tonnage data for disseminated flake graphite deposits Grade and tonnage data for disseminated flake graphite deposits
Crystalline graphite is a primary material in lithium-ion battery anodes which are essential in moving towards green energy. Forecasts for 2040 anticipate an order of magnitude increase in graphite demand driven by sustainable development policies to reduce carbon emissions. Domestic production of graphite ceased in the 1980s after a steady decline post-World War I, meaning the United...
Training and validation data from the AI for Critical Mineral Assessment Competition (ver. 2.0, July 2025) Training and validation data from the AI for Critical Mineral Assessment Competition (ver. 2.0, July 2025)
Extracting useful and accurate information from scanned geologic and other earth science maps is a time-consuming and laborious process involving manual human effort. To address this limitation, the USGS partnered with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to run the AI for Critical Mineral Assessment Competition, soliciting innovative solutions for automatically...
Tungsten skarn mineral resource assessment of the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California - Geodatabase Tungsten skarn mineral resource assessment of the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California - Geodatabase
A mineral resource assessment for tungsten, a critical mineral commodity (see 'Related External Resources' section below) for the United States, was carried out by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for a portion of the Great Basin region, in western Nevada and eastern California, between latitudes 36N and 42N and longitudes 116W and 120W. This study (Lederer and others, in review)...
Filter Total Items: 19
Automated georeferencing and feature extraction of geologic maps and mineral sites 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...
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
Applications of natural language processing to geoscience text data and prospectivity modelling Applications of natural language processing to geoscience text data and prospectivity modelling
Geological maps are powerful models for visualizing the complex distribution of rock types through space and time. However, the descriptive information that forms the basis for a preferred map interpretation is typically stored in geological map databases as unstructured text data that are difficult to use in practice. Herein we apply natural language processing (NLP) to geoscientific...
Authors
Christopher J.M. Lawley, Michael G. Gadd, Mohammad Parsa, Graham W. Lederer, Garth E. Graham, Arianne Ford
Rock-to-metal ratios of the rare earth elements Rock-to-metal ratios of the rare earth elements
The relative quantities of ore mined and waste rock (i.e., overburden) removed to produce the rare earth elements—their rock-to-metal ratios—were calculated for 21 individual operations or regions covering nearly all mine production in 2018. The results indicate that the rock-to-metal ratios for the total rare earth elements ranged from a low of 1.6 × 101 to a high of 3.6 × 103, with...
Authors
Nedal T. Nassar, Graham W. Lederer, Abraham J. Padilla, Joseph Gambogi, Daniel James Cordier, Jamie L. Brainard, Joseph D. Lessard, Ryan Charab
Rock-to-metal ratio: A foundational metric for understanding mine wastes Rock-to-metal ratio: A foundational metric for understanding mine wastes
The quantity of ore mined and waste rock (i.e., overburden or barren rock) removed to produce a refined unit of a mineral commodity, its rock-to-metal ratio (RMR), is an important metric for understanding mine wastes and environmental burdens. In this analysis, we provide a comprehensive examination of RMRs for 25 commodities for 2018. The results indicate significant variability across
Authors
Nedal T. Nassar, Graham W. Lederer, Jamie L. Brainard, Abraham J. Padilla, Joseph D. Lessard
USGS 2020 critical minerals review USGS 2020 critical minerals review
Concerns about the lack of domestic production and availability of essential mineral raw materials were a recurring theme throughout the 20th century, particularly in the periods around armed conflicts (Congressional Research Service, 2019). These concerns resulted in the designation of particular minerals as “strategic” or “critical,” terms that commonly depend on the perspective of the...
Authors
Steven M. Fortier, Nedal T. Nassar, Karen D. Kelley, Graham W. Lederer, Jeffrey L. Mauk, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Warren C. Day, Robert R. Seal,
Tungsten skarn mineral resource assessment of the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California Tungsten skarn mineral resource assessment of the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California
A new quantitative mineral resource assessment for tungsten, a critical mineral commodity with highly concentrated production and a moderate risk of global supply disruption, was conducted for the Great Basin region of western Nevada and eastern California. This assessment was part of a larger effort focusing on three regions in the United States and represents the first study of...
Authors
Graham W. Lederer, Federico Solano, Joshua Aaron Coyan, Kevin Denton, Kathryn E. Watts, Celestine N. Mercer, Damon Bickerstaff, Matthew Granitto
Non-USGS Publications**
Cottle, J., Lederer, G., and Larson, K., 2019, The monazite record of pluton assembly: Mapping Manaslu using petrochronology: Chemical Geology, v. 530, p. 119309.
Langille, J.M., Jessup, M.J., Cottle, J.M., Lederer, G., and Ahmad, T., 2012, Timing of metamorphism, melting and exhumation of the Leo Pargil dome, northwest India: Journal of Metamorphic Geology, v. 30, no. 8, p. 769–791.
Larson, K., Cottle, J., Lederer, G., and Rai, S.M., 2017, Defining shear zone boundaries using fabric intensity gradients: An example from the east-central Nepal Himalaya: Geosphere, v. 13, no. 3, p. 771–781.
Larson, K.P., Kellett, D.A., Cottle, J.M., King, J., Lederer, G., and Rai, S.M., 2016, Anatexis, cooling, and kinematics during orogenesis: Miocene development of the Himalayan metamorphic core, east-central Nepal: Geosphere, v. 12, no. 5, p. 1575–1593.
Lederer, G.W., Cottle, J.M., Jessup, M.J., Langille, J.M., and Ahmad, T., 2013, Timescales of partial melting in the Himalayan middle crust: insight from the Leo Pargil dome, northwest India: Contributions to Mineralogy and Petrology, v. 166, no. 5, p. 1415–1441.
McKinney, S.T., Cottle, J.M., and Lederer, G.W., 2015, Evaluating rare earth element (REE) mineralization mechanisms in Proterozoic gneiss, Music Valley, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 127, no. 7/8, p. 1135–1152.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.