Montana State geologist’s Antarctic research focuses on accumulations of rare earth elements

BOZEMAN – They’re in the headlines every week – critical minerals like lithium, cobalt, nickel, graphite and the rare earth elements essential for high-technology and national security applications.

While nations and businesses around the globe strategize to secure supplies of the coveted resources, Montana State University geologist Zachary Burton studies how rare earth elements are moved by geochemical and aqueous forces, such as freeze-thaw cycles and snowmelt, to concentrate in different environments. 

“Rare earth elements aren’t technically rare – they are somewhat ubiquitous at very low concentrations – but highly concentrated, economically attractive deposits are indeed rare and hard to find,” explained Burton, an assistant professor in MSU’s Department of Earth Sciences in the College of Letters and Science, who has studied rare earths for nearly 15 years. “That’s in large part because we don’t even know many fundamental scientific processes of why they concentrate in certain areas and how they’re moving around.”

Burton is the lead author of a paper published this week in the journal Cold Regions Science and Technology that describes the movement and accumulation of rare earth elements in salt ponds in an arid, partially permafrost region of Antarctica. Though mineral extraction is prohibited on the Antarctic continent by international agreement, Burton said the geochemical processes described in the paper may help us understand how the materials behave and accumulate in desert and cold regions elsewhere, including places like Greenland and Ukraine, whose natural resources are frequently in the news.

Burton said that little scientific research has been published on sediment-hosted rare earth elements in cold regions, especially by American scientists. That’s in part because most of the metals are currently extracted in tropical or subtropical regions, especially in China, and because mining activity and research in the United States has been on the decline since the 1970s.

“Rare earths are an area that’s been relatively neglected these past decades in terms of scientific research, but now — with these critical minerals constantly making headlines — there’s a whole lot to be learned in terms of where deposits are,” he said.

That isn’t limited only to deposits on Earth, according to the paper. Conditions in the Antarctic are similar to those found on various other planets, which is important because space agencies like NASA want to be able to use resources available on the moon and Mars to support future space missions.

Back on Earth and beyond Antarctica, Burton is working in Nevada, Utah and the Mojave Desert of California to understand how critical minerals — especially lithium and the rare earth elements — move and accumulate in the hot desert basins of the western U.S. 

As the department’s newest faculty member, he said he is looking forward to expanding collaborations with his colleagues and future students on further critical resources research and innovation.

“It’s a challenge and a scramble, but also very exciting, because there’s a lot more for the world to learn in these areas,” he said.

Alison Harmon, vice president for research and economic development, said she is excited to see growing expertise in critical minerals among MSU’s faculty.

“This will be an area where MSU can make an important contribution to national security and economic development in Montana and beyond,” she said.