Project title reconnaissance investigation of critical minerals in mine waste, coloradoperiod of performance 9 5 2022 through 9 4 2024THIS project will focus on conducting a reconnaissance…

Project title reconnaissance investigation of critical minerals in mine waste, coloradoperiod of performance 9 5 2022 through 9 4 2024THIS project will focus on conducting a reconnaissance investigation of critical minerals associated with mine related waste materials from historic mines in colorado critical minerals are essential to the u s economic and national security the u s relies on imports of these materials from other countries the u s may have economic deposits of critical minerals many of the critical minerals occur in trace amounts and may have been mined but not recovered from mines in the past waste material associated with historic mines may contain elevated concentrations of critical minerals also, concentrations of critical minerals may be elevated in historic mine related groundwater that is currently treated and discharged to protect human health and the environment numerous mine related waste piles and water discharges are present in colorado this investigation will concentrate on sampling select mine related waste piles and water discharges in colorado to determine the concentrations of critical minerals in these materials and to assist with the development of standard procedures to sample this material mine related waste materials from historic mines will be sampled and analyzed from six areas associated with mineral deposits that may contain elevated concentrations of critical minerals historic mine related waste materials includes waste rock or mine tailings produced during the mining process mine related water associated with historic mining areas that may contain critical minerals will also be collected and analyzed seasonally from ten perpetual water discharges currently, many of these historic mine discharges are regulated by state and federal public health agencies standard procedures for sampling will be developed and may be modified during the project a publicly available electronic report will be published which will include the data, analysis of the data, and results the results of this reconnaissance investigation will assist in determining the concentrationsof critical minerals in mine related waste in select areas of colorado and also provide data for future studies associated with the extraction and economic potential of critical minerals from this material mining critical minerals from mine related waste may assist with providing additional national sources of critical minerals further decreasing u s reliance on these materials while remediating historic mine related waste which, in some cases, can impact human health and the environment standard procedures developed during this project will assist with adequately characterizing this material and developing standards for sampling mine related waste associated with critical minerals in other areas of the u s