AN OVERVIEW OF ARKANSAS’ CRITICAL MINERAL PROGRAM

Arkansas has a variety of mineral resources including 13 critical minerals and rare earth elements. Those on the list besides rare earth elements are aluminum, antimony, barite, cobalt, gallium, lithium, manganese, nickel, niobium, tantalum, titanium, vanadium, and zinc. Over half of these critical minerals such as aluminum, antimony, barite, manganese, titanium, vanadium, and zinc have been mined commercially in the past. Lithium production is planned by Standard Lithium and Exxon in south Arkansas in the next few years. The remaining critical minerals are present in varying quantities across the state.

Renewed interest in critical minerals has led the Office of the State Geologist (OSG) to expand mapping in areas of known critical minerals and preserve data associated with these minerals. Preliminary research done by the USGS in 2015 led to geologic mapping of the Cason Formation in the historic Batesville Manganese District for REEs. In 2019, the OSG began geologic mapping of the REE-rich marine phosphate deposits within the Cason and published a new 1:24,000-scale geologic map through the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (EMRI). At this same time, we also began preserving material associated with critical minerals through the National Geological and Geophysical Data Preservation Program (NGGDPP). We identified the critical minerals in the state and developed figures of known locations of these minerals. A depth to crystalline basement map in the northern part of the state was also created. Continued support through EMRI has allowed us to begin a new mapping project of the Mississippi Valley-Type deposits in the north Arkansas zinc and lead district, submit borehole data for critical minerals, and submit samples for geochemical analysis.