EDX CLAIMM: A VIRTUAL COMMON OPERATING PLATFORM AND INTERACTIVE TOOLS SUPPORTING CRITICAL MINERALS RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT

Critical minerals (CM) are essential for manufacturing technologies vital to economic and national security. Yet, the lack of a secure domestic supply of these elements underscores the need for efficient, cost-effective, big data-driven analytical solutions to prospect for new ore deposits. Currently, significant amounts of CM data and information are available from numerous open-source resources, but are in disparate, multi-format, multi-sourced files. The absence of a unified, easily searchable CM database hinders efficient analytics and poses challenges to understanding the current state of CM resource information and identifying data gaps to further CM resource assessments. Moreover, existing CM-related datasets contain hundreds of attributes linked to geology, geochemistry, and infrastructure, making it difficult for researchers, local governments, and current or future mine operators to understand the patterns and relationships necessary to aid in CM resource development.

The National Energy Technology Laboratory’s EDX (Energy Data eXchange) ClaiMM (Critical Minerals & Materials) platform will serve as a unified national platform connecting stakeholders with CM data, tools, and information, while offering data management, curation, collaboration, and virtualization capabilities. The platform will support data sharing and analytical reproducibility, reducing time spent on data collection and integration for CM resource assessments. Current tools hosted within the platform include a story map web tool that provides context and understanding of unconventional critical mineral resource potential and the “National Critical Minerals Data Dashboard,” which enables rapid visualization and exploration of key quantitative and spatial CM-related datasets, promoting a better understanding of CM distribution and data gaps across geologic regimes throughout the United States. Ultimately, EDX ClaiMM will enhance accessibility of CM data and information, facilitating data-driven insights for all levels of stakeholders to unlock the potential of conventional and unconventional CM resources.