Profit from Potential: Proven Precious Metals and Latent Strategic Minerals in Mine Tailings
A Profit-rich Landscape: Over 500,000 Overlooked or Dormant Mine Tailings
Critical strategic minerals are vital components in various high-tech devices, military equipment, and renewable energy technologies.
The US faces challenges in securing a stable supply of these minerals due to geological scarcity, geopolitical issues, and supply chain vulnerabilities. Many critical minerals are not abundantly available within the U.S. borders, necessitating reliance on foreign sources—not always friendly.
Lithium, for example, is indispensable for electric vehicles and energy storage systems; demand for lithium is rapidly increasing. While the U.S. has lithium reserves, the current production and processing capabilities cannot meet the demand
Lithium
Lithium is used in batteries for electronic devices and electric vehicles, mood stabilizers in psychiatric treatment, improving the properties of ceramics and glass, lubricants, air purification, nuclear fusion, chemical synthesis, pharmaceuticals, and energy storage in renewable energy systems.
Graphite
Graphite is widely used in batteries, particularly in the electrodes of lithium-ion batteries, as a lubricant in various industrial applications, in the production of steel and.... pencils for writing and drawing, and as a moderator in nuclear reactors. Its properties also make it valuable in the manufacturing of graphene, a material with potential in electronics, composites, and advanced materials.
Strategic Minerals: Who Has them? The US Doesn't.
The U.S. is entirely dependent on imports for 12 essential minerals and is heavily reliant (over 95%) on imports for 13 others, as identified by the USGS.
For more than half of these minerals, China is the primary supplier.
Overall, of the 50 minerals deemed critical by the USGS, the U.S. has no domestic source for 12 and depends on imports for over 50% of its needs for an additional 31 critical minerals.
Mine Tailings:
• Lower value ore (at the time)
• Not assayed for other ores
• >500,000 tailings nationwide