Cooperative Agreement L24AC00360

The New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology will receive $244,370 through a Cooperative Agreement awarded by the United States Geological Survey under the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative program (CFDA 15.073) to characterize critical mineral endowments in mine waste sites in New Mexico. The two-year project will assess mine waste at the Copper Flat, Black Hawk, and Carlisle Center mining districts for their potential to contain critical minerals. Deliverables will include maps of mine...

This $351,978 Cooperative Agreement award from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) under the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (CFDA 15.073) will fund a project to generate a comprehensive geospatial database and inventory of mine waste sites in Nevada. The key activities include: Cataloging the locations, waste rock sizes, mineralogy, and geological records for mine waste sites across Nevada, which will be compiled into a detailed geodatabase accompanied by a geospatial analysis report....

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) awarded a $615,057.78 Cooperative Agreement under the Youth Conservation Opportunities on Public Lands program (CFDA 15.243) to American Conservation Experience (ACE), a non-profit organization. The agreement, with a performance period from September 2024 to July 2027, will provide approximately seven 52-week internships to support BLM's minerals and natural resource management efforts in New Mexico. The ACE interns will contribute to various aspects of...

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...

This $350,000 Project Grant award from the National Science Foundation's Geosciences (CFDA 47.050) program will enable researchers at The Washington University to investigate the biogeochemical processes affecting critical mineral resources in mine tailings and weathered ore zones in the United States. The primary research focus is characterizing rare earth elements in iron oxide-apatite and carbonatite ore waste materials, as well as platinum group elements in weathered ore zones, using...

This Cooperative Agreement award from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) under the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (CFDA 15.073) provides $318,535.57 in funding to the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology (New Mexico Tech) to conduct the following activities over a 2-year period from August 1, 2024 to July 31, 2026: Inventory approximately 100 mine waste sites (mills, tailings, slags, and smelters) across New Mexico and populate a USGS USMIN ArcGIS Pro database with the location data....

This $237,568 National Science Foundation project grant supports the Geosciences REU Site program at Montana Technological University from December 2022 through November 2024. The program provides undergraduate students hands-on research experience in environmental science and engineering through a 10-week summer internship. Students participate in fieldwork to collect samples from sites impacted by mining and climate change. They then conduct laboratory analysis on the samples under faculty...

This Cooperative Agreement award, provided by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) under the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (CFDA 15.073), will characterize mine waste potentially containing critical minerals at three former mine sites in Eastern California. The $146,783 award to the California Department of Conservation, to be executed from August 1, 2024 through July 31, 2026, will involve collecting composite samples of tailings for geochemical and mineralogical analysis at the...

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) awarded a $379,230 Cooperative Agreement to Montana Technological University (Montana Tech) under the USGS Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (EARTH MRI) program (CFDA 15.073). The 3-year project, running from September 2024 to August 2027, will conduct geologic mapping, geochemical sampling, and critical mineral resource assessments in the Basin District and Boulder Batholith region of southwestern Montana. Key deliverables include geologic maps at 1:48,000 and...

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,...