GEO-CM: Empowering Users as Builders: a Community-Driven Platform for Geochemical Modeling of Critical Minerals

Arizona State University, Scottsdale AZ

Investigators

Abstract

The list of critical minerals from the USGS gives 50 elements that can be dissolved in water as ions. Understanding critical minerals in solution is key to modeling processes related to ore formation, methods of ore treatment, mineral mobility, remediation of mine drainage, water quality, sustainable use of water resources, and more. However, existing thermodynamic properties for critical mineral solutes are woefully incomplete due to the sheer number of ways that other dissolved molecules can bind to them and produce new more complex solutes. This project will address this severe gap in thermodynamic data by developing techniques to estimate properties of these complex solutes and ultimately enhance quantitative models that facilitate “mining strategies and technologies to make better use of domestic resources” (Section 10359 of the CHIPS and Science Act 2022). This project will develop methods for estimating missing properties for 50 critical minerals and 75 ligands, and the nearly 30,000 possible complexes that can result. Thermodynamic estimates will be fully compatible with existing popular software tools for geochemical modeling. In addition, all estimation methods will be freely shared through an open-source interactive online web app called the CM-Complicator. This will enable users to make additional estimates and share their work through open-source, customizable, interactive online Jupyter notebooks. Users will be trained to make and apply estimates to geochemical models through a series of free online workshops. Tutorial and workhorse notebooks powered by the CM-Complicator will be distributed through a variety of other free online platforms that support Jupyter notebooks, including the free NSF-funded Water-Organic-Rock-Microbe (WORM) Portal online platform that has catered to students, teachers, researchers, and interested members of the general public since 2020. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.