The Alaska Miner Winter 2025 40 University will use $9M in funding to evaluate sites in Alaska, West Alaska is enriched with at least 49 out of the 50 minerals critical to America's economy, national security, and energy future. Many of these critical minerals, however, are not in traditional ore deposits. Instead, they are often found as minor byproducts of more traditionally mined metals such as copper, gold, silver, and zinc or associated with the enormous deposits of coal and other carbon ores found across the 49th State. To gain a better understanding of The Last Frontier state's potential to be a leading domestic supplier of critical minerals, the U.S. Department of Energy has awarded the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) $7.5 million to carry out regional-scale critical minerals assessments across Alaska, as well as the Pacific Northwest states of Washington and Oregon. The funds awarded to UAF are part of a $45 million investment in critical mineral projects across six U.S. regions, from Alaska to the Appalachian Mountains. "Rebuilding a domestic supply chain for critical minerals and materials here at home will both safeguard our national security and support the continued development of a clean energy and industrial economy," said Brad Crabtree, assistant secretary of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management (FECM). The six regional-scale programs being supported by the investment marks the start of the second phase of DOE's Carbon Ore, Rare Earth and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) Initiative, which is largely focused on the potential of extracting critical minerals from unconventional feedstocks, such as coal and coal byproducts, wastewater from oil and gas development, and acid mine drainage. While previous CORE-CM work focused on unlocking the critical mineral potential within individual coal basins across Alaska and the continental U.S., the latest round of DOE funding expands the research into unconventional critical mineral sources to the regional scale. The six CORE-CM regions being explored by the expanded program are: Alaska and the Pacific Northwest (Region 8); Upper Midwest and Illinois Basin (Region 3); Gulf Coast and Permian Basin (Region 5); Rocky Mountains (Region 6); Great Plains and Interior Highlands (Region 4); and Appalachian Mountains (Region 2). "DOE is investing in collaborative regional projects to help us realize our nation's full potential for recovery of these vital resources, while creating high-wage jobs and delivering environmental benefits for communities across the United States," Crabtree added. Region 8 critical minerals assessment UAF plans to use the $7.5 million in DOE funding provided through FECM, plus another $1.9 million from non-DOE sources, to position CORECM Region 8 as a leading domestic supplier of environmentally responsible critical minerals. One of the first steps in accomplishing the overall regional project mission is to identify and prioritize critical minerals sites across Alaska and the Pacific Northwest, which covers roughly 22% of the U.S. but is underexplored for its critical mineral potential. UAF is working alongside the state geological surveys from Alaska, Oregon, and Washington to carry out this Region 8 critical minerals assessment that will prioritize sites for more detailed studies based on their resource potential, the feasibility of developing these resources into future supplies of economically and environmentally sound critical minerals, and the strategic importance of the minerals identified at the sites. "This project will unite the three State Geological Surveys, supported by universities and other partners, to analyze this data, collect new data, and begin assessing and characterizing this largely untapped potential," UAF researchers to carry out critical mineral study Photo Courtesy University of Alaska Fairbanks
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTcxMjMwNg==