CRITICAL MINERALS MAPPING ACROSS THE UNITED STATES UNDER THE USGS EARTH MAPPING RESOURCES INITIATIVE (EARTH MRI)

The Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI), a partnership between the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and the State Geological Surveys, was established in Fiscal Year 2019 (FY 2019) to acquire modern geoscience data to support the Nation’s need for basic geological, geophysical, and topographic data to characterize areas that potentially host critical mineral resources. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law significantly increased funding to Earth MRI starting in 2022 to “accelerate efforts to carry out the fundamental resources and mapping mission of the United States Geological Survey by (1) providing integrated topographic, geologic, geochemical, and geophysical mapping; (2) accelerating the integration and consolidation of geospatial and resource data; and (3) providing interpretation of subsurface and above-ground mineral resources data.” Additionally, Congress instructed USGS to map the Nation’s critical mineral resources, both in the subsurface and in surface (e.g., mine waste) materials over the next 10 years. This increase in funding for Earth MRI has provided a transformational opportunity for the geoscience community to generate new detailed geologic maps, perform large-scale reconnaissance geochemical surveys on mineral systems that are widely dispersed across regional terranes, conduct new regional and high-quality airborne geophysical surveys, boost lidar-based geologic mapping, and expand the partnership of USGS and State Geological Surveys to examine critical mineral abundances in mine waste materials. Earth MRI is supporting a national mine waste inventory database as well as characterization efforts to inform the 10-year goal of mapping critical minerals for the Nation in surface mine waste materials.

This presentation will provide the national-level context for the Earth MRI-supported projects in this session and will provide examples of ongoing research projects and planned future directions. All published data and reports for Earth MRI can be found at https://usgs.gov/special-topic/earthmri.