This study aims to quantify rare earth element enrichment within coal and coal-adjacent strata in the Uinta Region of Utah and western Colorado. Rare earth elements are a subset of critical minerals used for renewable energy technology in the transition toward carbon-neutral energy. This data contains samples from seven active mines and seven stratigraphically complete cores within the Uinta Region, geochemically evaluated via portable X-ray fluorescence (n=3,113) and inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (n=143) elemental abundance methods. Historical evaluations of geochemical data on Uinta Region coal and coal-adjacent data are sparse, emphasizing the statistical significance of this study’s analyses. These results support the utilization of active mines and coal processing waste piles for the future of domestic rare earth element extraction, offering economic and environmental solutions to pressing global demands.

Last modified

• 12/19/2023

Creator

• Birgenheier, Lauren
• Coe, Haley
• Gall, Ryan
• Fernandez, Diego
• Giebel, Andrew
• Vanden Berg, Michael D.
• Free, Michael

Contributors

• Hamidat, Amin
• Starkie, Erin

Subject

• stratigraphy
• geochemistry
• coal resources
• sedimentology
• economic geology

Language

• English

Identifier

• www.doi.org/10.7278/S50d-5ny1-1wc1

Keyword

• Mesaverde Group
• Cretaceous
• coal
• critical minerals
• energy transition
• Blackhawk Formation
• Uinta Region
• rare earth elements

Date created

• 2022-05-23 to 2023-03-01

Location

• Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
• Uinta Basin, Utah, United States
• Piceance Creek Basin, Colorado, United States

Resource type

• Dataset

Source

• USGS Thesaurus

License

• Public Domain – This data is free of copyright restrictions (e.g. government sponsored data).