Inventory and characterization of mine wastes in the upper mississippi valley lead-zinc districtfrom illinois and wisconsinproject period: 9 1 2023 through 9 1 2025THE upper mississippi valley (UMV)…

The University of Illinois, through the Department of the Interior US Geological Survey Office of Acquisitions and Grants, has been awarded a $367,745 Cooperative Agreement under the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (CFDA 15.073) program. The 2-year project, running from September 1, 2023 to September 1, 2025, will inventory and characterize mine wastes in the Upper Mississippi Valley Lead-Zinc District of Illinois and Wisconsin. The goal is to identify potential critical mineral resources within these mine waste sites. Key deliverables include a GIS database, mapping of all georeferenced mine waste sites, and a comprehensive report on the geology, geochemistry, resource estimation, and environmental interactions of the mine wastes. The project will utilize newly created USGS sampling protocols to standardize the characterization efforts across the state geological surveys.

Inventory and characterization of mine wastes in the upper mississippi valley lead-zinc districtfrom illinois and wisconsinproject period: 9 1 2023 through 9 1 2025THE upper mississippi valley (UMV) lead-zinc district is one of the largest base metal districts in north america and the type locality for mississippi valley-type (MVT) deposits. IT covers more than 7,800 KM2 in northwest illinois, northeast iowa, and southwest wisconsin. The UMV lead-zinc district in this area has produced over 1.5 million short tons of zinc and 500,000 short tons of lead. The ores contain 4 to 8 of ZN, and 0.5 to 1 of PB. A large volume of mine wastes has rejected from extraction of PB and ZN ores forming mine, mill tailings, and rock piles across the UMV lead-zinc district. Remaining lead and zinc in some of these mine tailings piles gave high concentrations of lead (446 to 1,943 PPM) and zinc (3,502 to 20,088 PPM) but there is no reliable data available on the distribution or the concentrations of critical minerals such as ZN, BA, u, CD, AG, GA, in, and GE-bearing minerals within MVT sphalerite ORE, and associated barite ORE. For this 2-year earth mapping resource initiative (emri) project, the isgs and wgnhs proposes to inventory and characterize UMV mine waste sites that may potentially contain critical mineral resources. The emri mine waste cooperative agreements G23AS00160 provides an opportunity to deliver unbiased information of unknown mineral resource potential, disposal volume, and environmental interaction in a region that has been largely mined for lead and zinc ores.priority 1 national mine waste inventory will collect, compile, and map existing data of UMV mine waste sites in illinois and wisconsin to provide the surface framework for future explorations of critical minerals. The isgs will deliver a gems compliant arcgis database, a map of all georeferenced UMV mine waste sites, a report, and feedback provided by usmin.for the priority 2 project, the isgs has prioritized two mine waste sites in illinois for their volume, geology, and potentially resources: (1) the bautsch-gray mine superfund site, and (2) the little giant mines mine tailing pile. Mine wastes materials will be collected following the newly created USGS sampling protocol for mine waste characterization efforts to standardize the sampling carried out by the state geological surveys. The samples will be analyzed for geochemistry and mineralogy to identify mine waste sites for their extraction of critical minerals in the future. The isgs will deliver to the USGS geospatial data of the UMV mine waste sites, volume estimates of mine tailings piles, geochemistry, resource estimation, and report.