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Project Research Application: Critical Minerals / In Situ Mining

  • Seismic Imaging, Inversion and Uncertainty Quantification

    The algorithmic workhorse for creating a map of the subsurface from seismic surveys is full waveform inversion. Many fundamental questions remain wide open about it, including how to deal with the lack of convexity in optimization, how to make use of AI to speed it up or supersede it, and how to quantify the uncertainty inherent in its predictions. Among the various projects that the Imaging and Computing group has led over the years, one current topic of great interest is the convergence of AI and uncertainty quantification. We provide the first method for sampling the “epistemic” posterior of a neural network that is consistent with the Bayesian setting. The upshot is for the practitioner to have correct, not arbitrary, error bars on the seismic image.

    Sponsored by: TotalEnergies

    ERL Personnel: Laurent Demanet

  • The Origin and Timing of Silver Enrichment at the world-class Filo Del Sol Cu-Au-Ag deposit

    As the world transitions to renewable energy, the demand for metals like silver is soaring. Silver is essential for technologies like solar panels and batteries, securing its place among critical minerals. High-sulfidation epithermal deposits are key sources of silver, gold, and copper, but understanding where and how silver-rich zones form remains a scientific challenge. At the newly discovered Filo Del Sol deposit in Argentina, researchers are using cutting-edge techniques to analyze the chemistry and age of minerals to uncover the origins of silver. This is the first time such methods are being applied together at this scale in these types of deposits aiming to characterize the precise conditions that drive silver enrichment. Insights from this work will help design appropriate mineral exploration strategies globally, including in the U.S. The project includes hands-on training for students in advanced geoscience methods, helping prepare the next generation of experts for careers in clean energy and mining.

    Sponsored by: NSF Petrology and Geochemistry

    ERL personnel: Hervé Rezeau (Lead)

    Collaborators: Brian Jicha (University of Wisconsin-Madison), Michael Pribil (US Geological Survey), Camila Sojo (PhD student, University of Arizona), Vicuña Corp. (joint arrangement between Lundin Mining and BHP)

  • Modeling Supershear Earthquakes to Forecast Induced Seismicity Hazard

    While the potential for subsurface fluid injection and extraction to trigger earthquakes has long been recognized, the sharp increase in the extent and vigor of injection-induced seismicity calls for much deeper understanding than is currently available. One of the features of some highly destructive earthquakes is their supershear rupture propagation, with velocities faster than the shear wave speed that typically lead to large magnitude events. The intensity and the patterns of strong ground motion for supershear earthquakes have been shown to be inherently different from those of regular (sub-Rayleigh) ones, calling for a need to elucidate the controlling factors behind rupture speed to understand. Fluids fill the pore space of crustal rocks, and pore pressures are essential to understand the stability of geologic fault. However, poro-mechanical effects are often neglected in the analysis and interpretation of earthquake rupture speeds. Here we address the overarching question: what is the role of pore fluids in the generation of supershear earthquakes? We break this down into two fundamental questions: (1) How does pressurization rate from injection impact rupture speeds? (2) Can heterogeneity in frictional properties elicit a transition between rupture regimes (e.g., from slow-slip, to regular earthquake, to supershear earthquake)? We address these fundamental questions through a combination of high-resolution computational modeling and theoretical stability analyses that probe the regime transitions of the coupled fluid/porous solid system.  We anticipate that our results will shed new light in our understanding of supershear earthquakes, paving the way for improved forecasting of earthquake hazards.

    Sponsored by: MIT-Spain UPM Seed Fund

    ERL Personnel: Ruben Juanes (PI)

    Collaborators: Luis Cueto-Felgueroso (co-PI, UPM Spain)

  • Critical Minerals of the Laramide Porphyry Belt, Southwest USA

    The U.S.–Mexico borderlands, spanning Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Sonora, Chihuahua, and Sinaloa, make up one of the world’s most important copper regions. Alongside copper, these porphyry systems also contain a wide range of critical minerals such as gallium, indium, cobalt, tellurium, tungsten, and platinum-group elements—materials essential for clean energy, electronics, and advanced technologies.

    Despite their importance, the distribution of these critical minerals is still poorly understood. Existing geochemical data are incomplete, inconsistent, and vary in quality, making it difficult to evaluate the full potential of these mineral systems. A clearer, more systematic picture is needed to guide future research and resource assessments. This project aims to fill that gap by compiling past data, collecting new samples, and applying modern analytical techniques to create the first standardized geochemical database of the region. The results will provide a better understanding of where critical minerals occur in porphyry copper systems and help identify areas with the greatest potential for future exploration and development.

    Sponsored by: USGS Earth MRI (Award number: G23AC00054)

    ERL personnel: Hervé Rezeau

    Collaborators: Carson Richardson (Lead; Arizona Geological Survey), Victor Garcia (Arizona Geological Survey), Virginia T. McLemore (New Mexico Tech), Nels Iverson (New Mexico Tech)