Characterization of rare earth elements in alleghanian and NEO-acadian granitoids in virginia, north carolina, and south carolinaproject period: 7 6 2023 through 6 30 2026AWARD purpose: this award…

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) awarded a $550,000 Cooperative Agreement under the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (CFDA #15.073) to the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NCDEQ) to characterize potential rare earth element resources in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. The project will involve identifying target granites and related rocks, collecting and analyzing rock, weathered rock, and soil samples across the three states. The key deliverables include a geochemistry database, a final report on project results, and a report examining the use of portable X-ray fluorescence as a screening tool. NCDEQ will subcontract with the South Carolina Geological Survey and Virginia Geology and Mineral Resources Program to support data collection and analysis activities in their respective states. The intended beneficiaries of this grant include the USGS Earth MRI, state agencies, industry, and the public.

Activities

To characterize potential rare earth element resources, the project will identify target granites and related rocks in each of the three states. The states will then identify sampling sites on the target granites collect rock, weathered rock, and soil samples and submit the samples for elemental and mineralogical analyses. Finally, the states will produce two reports and a geochemistry database as discussed below.deliverables and expected outcomes: this project will produce three deliverables. The first will be a gems level-3 database containing all geochemical and mineralogical data collected during the study. The database will be available through the south carolina geological survey. The second will be a final report containing the project s results which will be published through the north carolina geological survey and made available to the public on their website. The third will be a report examining the effectiveness of portable x-RAY fluorescence as a geochemical screening tool which will be published by the virginia GMR program and available on their website.

Intended beneficiaries

The intended beneficiaries of this project are the USGS earth MRI, lawmakers, state government agencies, industry, and the public.

Subrecipient activities

The north carolina geological survey will subcontract with south carolina geological survey and the virginia geology and mineral resources program to characterize weathered rock and soil in their respective states. The north carolina geological survey will also subcontract with SGS canada to analyze which minerals are present in samples from the three states.