EESC 5550 Critical Minerals Seminar (grad)

The term " critical mineral" has become a buzzword in the news with geopolitical leveragebut where do we find them on Earth and how do they form? There is not a simple way to understand critical minerals, as the term defines any raw material that is mined that is essential to economic or national security and vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. This seminar will meet weekly to discuss recent research and literature focusing on a variety of critical minerals and the geological processes by which they form. Our goal as a class will be to develop both a working understanding of the formation of the selected critical minerals, and to determine areas of active research to identify open questions about critical minerals.