T113 Assessing Critical Mineral and Rare Earth Element Potential from Unconventional Resources in the United States

Monday, 10 October 2022
1:30 PM - 5:30 PM
Mile High Ballroom 4D

CRITICAL MINERAL CONTENTS OF DEEP OCEAN PHOSPHORITES AND FERROMANGANESE CRUSTS IN THE BLAKE PLATEAU AND SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA BORDERLAND OFFSHORE OF THE UNITED STATES

Paper number: T113-14
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 4:45 PM – 5:00 PM

Authors

  • Kira Mizell Presenting Author
    Pacific Coastal and Marine Science Center, Santa Cruz, CA

Abstract

The total area of offshore territory within the Exclusive Economic Zone of the United States is larger than its entire land area, and within these regions deep ocean minerals occur that contain critical minerals and rare earth elements. Two such regions include the Blake Plateau off the Atlantic coast and the Southern California Borderland off the Pacific coast, both of which host ferromanganese minerals and phosphorites. These regions were sampled and preliminarily characterized in terms of mineral resource potential over the last ~50 years, however, most studies reported concentrations of only select elements. For ferromanganese minerals in Blake Plateau, average concentration values for manganese, iron, cobalt, nickel, and copper were emphasized, and for phosphorites in both regions, only phosphorus, calcium, and major elements were typically reported. The exception is ferromanganese crusts in the Southern California Borderland for which a few samples from within the Borderland and the seamounts just outside were characterized for a full suite of more than 50 elements. Analogous to reinvestigating known terrestrial ore bodies for additional minerals, expanding geochemical analyses of previously characterized marine mineral systems contributes to the inventory of critical and rare earth minerals. Here I will present new geochemical data, including critical mineral concentrations, for recently recovered samples as well as recharacterized archive samples from both regions. While work remains to determine distribution and tonnages for these ferromanganese and phosphorite mineral occurrences, critical mineral data will provide an update to previous investigations of their mineral resource potential and expand critical mineral resource considerations offshore of the United States.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 54, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2022AM-383082

© Copyright 2022 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.