The recent study of a core rock sample in northwest Lyon County signals the start of a possibly four-year effort towards developing a predictive model and thus finding more domestic supplies of critical minerals.
Kansas Geological Survey spokesman Brendan Bream joined KVOE’s Morning Show on Monday after the Geological Survey mentioned its partnership with the independent oil and gas firm Mull Companies last week. Bream says Lyon County was chosen for a reason: it’s part of an area involved in the Pennsylvanian, or Carboniferous geologic time scale dating back around 300 million years.
The core sample was taken east of Council Grove and will be studied for the next several months. Bream says “it’s not the most exciting” sample, but research is in the very early stages and the Lyon County sample is the first of several sites to be studied.
Bream says Phase 1, or the current phase, ends in a year. Phase 2 will go another three years and will focus on developing a predictive model for locating critical material sites. The US government is looking at ways to develop domestic production sites for minerals like lanthanum, lead, lithium, nickel and zinc so the country can expand its solar and wind energy efforts and foster battery production while reducing its reliance on countries like China, long considered an adversary, and India.
The research is being funded from the US Department of Energy and has collaborators from Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma and the Osage Nation. Companies like Lighthouse Drilling, Kudu Coring and ELI Wireline.
