Increasing concern about the need for non-Chinese supply chains has generated much talk but fewer tangible efforts. Recent news, however, outlines plans formulated by two of the world’s major mining countries along with the world’s largest economy.
Canada, Australia and the U.S. intend to work together on the Critical Minerals Mapping Initiative. Following bi-national MOUs that the U.S. signed with each of the others, the CMMI intends to have the trans-national trio pool its knowledge, co-operate on research and provide publicly available info.
The collaboration calls for the three countries to:
-share data
-unify critical minerals analyses
-build on existing datasets
-identify gaps in knowledge
-learn more about critical minerals in different deposit types
-enhance working relationships
The most tangible new work announced so far might be that of the U.S. Last month agencies led by the U.S. Geological Survey launched the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative, a 21-state project with US$7.97 million to spend this year.
Programs of mapping, geochemistry and lidar, along with airborne magnetics and radiometrics, will search the country for new sources of critical minerals. Earth MRI results will be added to already extensive subsurface data compiled by the Geological Survey of Canada and Geoscience Australia.
For the rest of this article: http://resourceclips.com/2020/10/16/canada-australia-and-u-s-announce-the-critical-minerals-mapping-initiative/