Scientists drill for rare minerals in northeast Kansas

LAWRENCE (KSNT) - Scientists are searching for potential drilling sites in northeast Kansas which could reveal new sources of rare Earth minerals.

The Kansas Geological Service (KGS) announced in a recent publication that KGS scientists are working to identify new sources of critically important resources in Lyon County. Successfully locating new sources of these special minerals would go towards improving the nation's economic vitality and security.

KGS scientists partnered with the independent oil and gas company Mull Companies to drill out a well in Lyon County to evaluate whether subterranean layers of rock contain minerals which can be used for electronics and other advanced technologies. Most often these materials are provided by overseas trading with countries like India and China which can be at risk of disruption as shown during the COVID-19 Pandemic.

“We’re in the early stages of trying to identify where to find the different minerals and elements that are essential to energy transition, such as the minerals used in batteries to store energy produced by wind and solar farms,” said Brendan Bream, KGS associate director and senior scientist. “This project is the first step in thinking about reopening domestic sources for those critical minerals.”

Workers on site used a wellbore to retrieve rock core samples from deep beneath the Earth to study what materials lie below. They also lowered other equipment into the well to study the characteristics of the rock using a method called wireline logging.

“Wireline logging gives us a relatively coarse analysis of the rock layers, compared to studies of the core itself, which allow more detailed analysis,” Bream said. “We’re evaluating whether we can use wireline logging tools to explore the subsurface without having to drill new wells and conduct high-end geochemical analyses.”

Lyon County was chosen as the location for this study due to its location in the geologic area known as the Cherokee-Forest City basin. This area contains deposits of limestone, sandstone, shale and coal.

“We can see these coals and black shales in the wireline data," said Stephan Oborny, KGS assistant scientist. "By combining these data from multiple wells, we can then correlate the rocks through the subsurface and into the outcrop belt and hopefully identify sweet spots, either at depth or at the surface, for critical mineral enrichment. Concentrations of certain critical minerals are quite high in these rocks and could be economically viable if we can determine how to best extract them from the subsurface.”

This KGS investigation into Lyon County's underground is part of larger efforts taking place across the U.S. to identify abundances of critical minerals. Information taken from the Lyon County site will go towards helping scientists understand how to find more deposits of minerals in the future.

“We’re thinking about it in terms of finding new, local sources for industrial raw materials,” Bream said. “There’s security in having a domestic source. And there are economic advantages to keeping it local.”

Samples obtained from Lyon County are being sent off to a storage facility managed by the KGS which currently holds 70,000 boxes worth of rock samples retrieved from all over the nation.

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