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rare earth elements

A copper mine delves deep into the orange rock of an Arizona desert. More than a dozen even steps have been excavated leading down to a roughly circular depression in the ground. Some of the steps have patches of oxidized copper, a blue-green color. A smooth path large enough for heavy machinery spirals down into the bottom of the mine.
Posted inResearch Spotlights

Machine Learning Could Revolutionize Mineral Exploration

by Aaron Sidder 26 August 202223 September 2022

Using a global data set of zircon trace elements, new research demonstrates the power of machine learning algorithms to accurately identify and locate porphyry copper deposits.

Two researchers in white lab coats conduct a flash Joule heating experiment.
Posted inNews

Extracting Rare Earth Elements from Waste with a Flash of Heat

by Rachel Fritts 14 March 202215 March 2022

A method called flash Joule heating could offer a more sustainable way to source essential components of electronics from coal fly ash.

Photograph of brown-orange river water
Posted inNews

New Sensor Aids Rare Earth Extraction from Acid Mine Drainage

by Jenessa Duncombe 29 November 2021

Rare earth elements appear in more than 200 consumer products. The race is on to source these elements from abundant and environmentally damaging mining waste.

This junction in Colorado’s Snake River is tinged with orange due to acid rock drainage.
Posted inNews

New Contamination Concern for Colorado Streams

by Nancy Averett 14 October 202121 March 2022

Abandoned hardrock mines and climate change cause metals and other elements to leach into streams. They also put rare earth elements into the water, a new study finds.

Background image of a mine overlain by images of a wind turbine, a computer tablet, a jet plane, an electric car charging port, and wheat in a field.
Posted inScience Updates

Geological Surveys Unite to Improve Critical Mineral Security

by P. Emsbo, C. Lawley and K. Czarnota 5 February 20216 December 2021

A three-nation consortium is pooling geological expertise and resources to address vulnerabilities in supplies of these crucial natural resources.

View looking out a helicopter cockpit over remote eastern Alaska landscape
Posted inScience Updates

Ancient Rivers and Critical Minerals in Eastern Alaska

by A. Bender, R. Lease, J. V. Jones III and D. Kreiner 29 July 20206 December 2021

Fieldwork is revealing a history of landscape evolution over the past 5 million years that links climate change and river capture to critical mineral resources across the Alaska-Yukon border.

Close-up photo of tan sandstone with gray splotches
Posted inNews

Paleontologists Peer Inside Billion-Year-Old Cells

by Hannah Thomasy 6 August 201922 February 2022

Scientists have discovered the fossilized remains of Precambrian cells extraordinarily preserved with the rare earth element phosphates monazite and xenotime.

Features from AGU Journals

RESEARCH SPOTLIGHTS
JGR: Solid Earth
“New Tectonic Plate Model Could Improve Earthquake Risk Assessment”
By Morgan Rehnberg

EDITORS' HIGHLIGHTS
AGU Advances
“Eminently Complex – Climate Science and the 2021 Nobel Prize”
By Ana Barros

EDITORS' VOX
Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists
“New Directions for Perspectives of Earth and Space Scientists”
By Michael Wysession


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