Strategic Minerals – Are They Hiding in Plain Sight?

Abstract:

There is no shortage of extensive, publicly available records of historical mining in the U.S.A. and other venues, numerous geochemical databases, countless regional and local economic geology studies, detailed geologic maps, and so forth. We contend, however, that most such sources are not directly relevant to today’s search for the 35 strategic minerals defined by the U.S. Geologic Survey. Simply put, we have not vigorously interrogated these potentially invaluable resources with strategic minerals in mind. Nor were those data sets originally collected and collated with strategic minerals in mind. Round Top Mountain at Sierra Blanca in Hudspeth County, Texas provides an example of how economics and geopolitics can dramatically change the target elements or minerals in a single deposit. Originally, back in the 1970s, this massive rhyolite laccolith was prospected as a fluorspar source. Subsequently, in the 1980s it was extensively drilled and a 1000-foot incline excavated for a beryllium play. By 2010, the mountain emerged as a potential source of ultra-scarce heavy rare earth elements; a few years later lithium also was found to be a valuable possible product. We thus see at Round Top the evolution and interplay of supply needs, geopolitics, economics, and geologic knowledge over time.

How do we project these observations about Round Top into an exploration model?

We suggest first assembling available data on known or suspected mineralized locales in the geographic region of interest. Presumably, none or few of such locales previously have been investigated for strategic minerals. Literature and other data would be parsed using modern ideas, and potential targets generated, noted, and prioritized. A hint might be an old report of the presence of a mineral, the occurrence of which was observed in that study and included only for completeness. If that mineral is a potential host or pathfinder for a strategic element, the data and geologic setting of that locale would become the focus of intense scrutiny. Likewise, elevated levels of critical elements or associated elements in geochemical surveys will focus one’s attention.

This approach takes the view that valuable deposits of strategic elements may be hidden in plain sight. One must connect the dots....by properly compiling and re-interpreting those pre-existing files.