Mine waste inventory and phase 1 mine waste characterization in washington stateproject period: 7 1 2023 through 6 30 2025PURPOSE: the recipient will develop a state mine waste inventory to support…

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) awarded a $192,463 Cooperative Agreement to the Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR) under the Department of the Interior's Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (CFDA 15.073). The agreement supports the development of a statewide inventory of mine waste sites in Washington, as well as initial characterization of 10 priority mine waste sites. Key deliverables include an ArcGIS geodatabase of mine site locations, geology, resources, and references, along with a report summarizing the inventory process and initial characterization results. The effort aims to provide federal, state, tribal, and local agencies with data to support land management planning and mine waste remediation. It will also provide the mining industry with resource estimates to potentially extract critical minerals from the identified mine waste sites.

Intended beneficiaries

This effort will be of interest and benefit to a wide range of federal, state, tribal, and local agencies who engage in the inventory of critical minerals and (or) the remediation of existing and abandoned mine lands. The recipient intends for the resource estimates to be used by stakeholders in the mining industry in their planning for the extraction of critical minerals from existing mine waste.subrecipients: n a