Robert R. Seal

The primary objectives of this one-year scoping project are to determine the feasibility of extracting byproduct mineral commodities, such as critical minerals, from mine tailings. We plan to analyze the existing data and reports from an active mine site on the composition of their mill tailings pile, and collect preliminary reconnaissance samples to identify appropriate analytical techniques that...

The overall objective of our project is to take the abundant geoenvironmental model research that the Mineral Resources Program has supported, and use it to refine the geoenvironmental model concept to make it more useable for our current stakeholders.

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...

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...