Arizona Geological Society
2024 Speaker Series
Tuesday, 12 November 2024 | 5:30 - 8:00 PM
Location: Hexagon Mining Division Office
40 East Congress Street, Suite 150, Tucson, Arizona 85701
Parking: On the street or parking garage (Old Pueblo Parking)
Social Hour with Sandwiches from Beyond Bread (5:30-6:30 PM), Presentation (6:35 PM)
For those planning to attend the event, please register by 6:00 PM on Sunday, November 10, 2024
For those unable to attend, here is a
MS Teams URL for Remote Viewing
Remote Broadcast begins at 6:35 PM
(Streaming URL)
Meeting ID: 396 301 700 024
Passcode: WBXUJ2
The Arizona Geological Society thanks Hexagon
for generously providing the venue and drinks
Arizona's Place in the Green Energy Transition, Strategic and Critical Minerals, and How They will be Sourced
Carson Richardson
Arizona Geological Survey
Abstract - Critical and strategic minerals have been buzzy terms in the news in the last few years, but have an often-ignored history that stretches clearly back to World War I. Critical mineral topics have been receiving bipartisan support from Congress as sourcing them addresses multiple needs. For one, in the United States, we are dependent on imports of critical minerals from other countries to meet 50% to 100% of total domestic demand for almost all critical minerals. Thus, many of these supply chains are vulnerable to disruption from geopolitics, social upheaval, and other unexpected events. Additionally, the renewable (or green) energy transition away from fossil fuels to reduce carbon footprints and combat climate change will require huge amounts of metals compared to current levels. There are simply not enough active mines or emerging deposits of many of the critical minerals to meet projected global demand.
This talk will: 1) sift through the jargon around critical and strategic minerals and materials; 2) provide a survey of the history of critical and strategic minerals in the United States; 3) an overview of the known critical mineral deposits in Arizona with primary critical mineral ores and those with potential to produce byproduct critical mineral ores – see figure below; and 4) future demand scenarios and how the United States could work to meet these demands.
Speaker Bio: Carson is a Senior Research Scientist with the Arizona Geological Survey at the University of Arizona, having started in January 2019. Carson grew up in the cornfields near Peru, Indiana – the circus capital of the world. He received his B.S. in anthropology and geology from Ball State University in 2012, and a M.S. and Ph.D. in geosciences from the University of Arizona in 2014 and 2019, respectively. Carson’s interests span economic, regional, and structural geology, with particular interest in the geometry and growth of normal faults, structural reconstructions of faulted ore deposits and extensional domains, the societal understanding of mineral resources, resource consumption, environmental impacts, and the intersectionality of science and public policy.
Hexagon Mining Division Office - 40 East Congress Street,
Suite 150, Tucson, Arizona 85701
