Critical Minerals Research in Southern Wyoming

August 2nd (Tuesday), 6 p.m., Via Zoom (online) & Live at Teton County Library. Open to Public.
Presentation: “Critical Minerals Research in Southern Wyoming”
Presented by Patty Webber, Wyoming State Geological Survey

Wyoming has an extensive history of mining and mineral exploration. Precious and base metals have been pursued for the past 170 years, while fossil fuels, uranium, and trona have played an important role in the state’s economy for the better part of the last century. Modern mineral investigations are beginning to turn towards critical minerals, which have come into the spotlight recently as global demand for greener energy sources and new technology rapidly expands. 

Since critical minerals are considered essential to economic and national security, are vulnerable to supply disruptions, and are largely acquired from foreign sources, the federal government has allocated significant funding to investigate the distribution and potential for these minerals across the United States. The state of Wyoming has followed suit. For the past two years, the Wyoming State Geological Survey has been researching critical mineral potential in the Laramie Mountains through the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) program. This project has looked in depth at the central part of the Laramie Mountains, producing two new 1:24,000-scale maps and an accompanying geochemical and geochronological data. 

Other critical mineral research has been conducted or is ongoing near Kemmerer, the Rock Springs uplift, and the Medicine Bow Mountains. Upcoming investigations will include geophysical surveys in the Medicine Bow and Sierra Madre mountains and continued large-scale sampling programs.

This prospect pit near the Strong Mine, located in the central Laramie Mountains, exposes a wide band of garnet, epidote, chlorite, and quartz within significantly altered anorthosite. Hot fluids and granitic melts intruded the Paleoproterozoic Horse Creek anorthosite, forming localized polymetallic deposits that were historically mined for copper, gold, and critical elements like tungsten.

Topic: Critical Minerals Research in Southern Wyoming 
Time: August 2nd , 2022 06:00 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada)

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