Critical Minerals Exploration Department

Critical Minerals Exploration trains students to explore and evaluate minerals essential to the energy transition — lithium, rare earths, cobalt, nickel, and graphite. Students learn to interpret geochemical and geophysical data to assess resource potential and practice exploration simulation to internalize the full assessment workflow. By studying geometallurgical process modeling, graduates leave equipped not only to estimate reserves but to optimize recovery — spanning the entire exploration-to-development pipeline.

⚙️ GeoAcademy System Administration College 🖥️ AI & Computing Sciences College 🔬 Basic Sciences College ⚡ Intelligent Geophysical Exploration College 🛢️ Resource & Energy Engineering College 🌍 Applied Geoscience Solutions College 💼 Economics, Policy & Strategy for the Future College 🎓 Education & Training Development College 🚀 Innovation & International Collaboration College

Carbon Capture & Storage Project Department Nuclear Waste Disposal Project Department Oil & Gas Exploration Project Department Applied Geothermal Energy Project Department Geohazards & Monitoring Project Department Offshore Wind Farm Project Department Critical Minerals Exploration Department Land Site Survey & Assessment Department Special Applications Department Environmental Geoscience Department

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⭐ Dana

Chair

💡 Mineralogy & Mineral Resource Evaluation

Researchers (real GeoVerse Lab members) 15

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1925–1987

Hans P. Eugster

Researcher

💡 Founder of quantitative saline-lake brine evolution theory (Eugster-Hardie model)

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1915–1983

Richard H. Jahns

Researcher

💡 Co-developer of the Jahns-Burnham experimental model of pegmatite genesis (1969)

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1851–1940

Waldemar Christofer Brøgger

Researcher

💡 First scientific description of carbonatite igneous rocks (Fen Complex, 1921)

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1839–1904

Jules Garnier

Researcher

💡 Discovered nickel laterite (garnierite) ore in New Caledonia (1864); the mineral garnierite is named after him

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1887–1962

Hans Schneiderhöhn

Researcher

💡 Founder of modern genetic ore deposit classification ("Die Erzlagerstätten der Erde")

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1869–1956

Daniel C. Jackling

Researcher

💡 Pioneer of open-pit mass mining of low-grade porphyry copper ore (Bingham Canyon, 1906)

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1868–1935

Frederick Leslie Ransome

Researcher

💡 Pioneer of ore-deposit genetic mapping and replacement/exhalative ore-genesis theory in early American economic geology

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1860–1939

Waldemar Lindgren

Researcher

💡 Founder of American economic geology's genetic/depth-temperature classification of hydrothermal ore deposits ("Mineral Deposits", 1913)

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1901–1971

J. D. Bernal

Researcher

💡 Determined the crystal structure of graphite using X-ray diffraction (1924)

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1930–2000

Georges Matheron

Researcher

💡 Founder of geostatistics and the theory of kriging

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1847–1931

Frank Wigglesworth Clarke

Researcher

💡 Founder of geochemistry; first systematic tabulation of the elemental abundance of Earth's crust ("The Data of Geochemistry")

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1907–2009

Victor Vacquier

Researcher

💡 Inventor of the fluxgate magnetometer and pioneer of airborne magnetic exploration methods

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1900–1974

Antoine Marc Gaudin

Researcher

💡 Founder of the scientific principles of froth flotation mineral processing ("Flotation", 1932)

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1888–1961

Erich Zimmermann

Researcher

💡 Founder of functional resource-economics theory ("World Resources and Industries", 1933)

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1922–1995

Clair Cameron Patterson

Researcher

💡 Determined the age of the Earth using lead-isotope geochronology (1956)