Characterization of mine waste tailings piles of the illinois-kentucky fluorspar districtproject period: 9 15 2024 through 9 14 2026AWARD purpose: the illinois state geological survey (isgs)…

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) awarded a $462,228 Cooperative Agreement to the University of Illinois under the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (CFDA 15.073) program. The agreement supports three key objectives:

1. Mapping of historic fluorspar mine waste tailings in the Illinois-Kentucky Fluorspar District, including geochemical and mineralogical analyses of 155 newly collected samples. This will create a comprehensive geographic database and map of the mine waste sites and their characteristics.

2. Filling data gaps and defining an improved sampling strategy to assess the potential for critical mineral resources, such as fluorspar, barite, and rutile, within the mine waste tailings.

3. Delivering an ESRI file geodatabase, GIS-enabled map layers, and a supplemental geologic interpretation report to support future critical mineral exploration and production activities in the region.

The project period runs from September 15, 2024 through September 14, 2026, with the goal of providing crucial information to industry for extracting valuable minerals from the abandoned mine waste sites in southern Illinois.

Activities

The isgs proposes to conduct three objectives to better understand resource estimates in the ikfd and provide crucial information for future extraction of fluorspar and potential critical minerals from mine waste tailings sites. These project tasks will directly contribute to priory 1 (national mine waste inventory) and priority 2 (mine waste characterization) outlined in the nofo documents. The three objectives are as follows: mapping of the ikfd mine waste tailings and newly collected samples with geochemical analyses. New geochemical and mineralogical data driven by the newly created map, will be used to fill data gaps and help define a better sampling strategy of minerals for resource assessments of critical minerals in the ikfd. An esri file geodatabase including all data and a supplemental report that includes a high-level geologic interpretation that will provide context to the data.deliverables and expected outcomes: a map that includes historic fluorspar mines, veins, local structural geology, and newly collected sample locations with corresponding geochemical and mineralogical data from the ikfd. All acquired data will be georeferenced in gems compliant format. All data will be compiled in an esri file geodatabase. The historic mine data will be GEO-referenced when possible, with scans provided and linked to the mine footprint in the subsurface. Newly acquired geochemical and mineralogical data from field sampling ( 155 samples total). All new acquired data will be delivered in the form of microsoft excel and be compiled in an esri arcgis file geodatabase including a gems compliant format shapefile and CSV tables and a supplemental report that includes a high-level geologic interpretation will provide context to the data.

Intended beneficiaries

These data will be crucial for future industry and critical mineral exploration and production.

Subrecipient activities

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