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Current Research

Critical mineral partitioning in coal-hosted clays of the Powder River Basin, WY determined by sequential extraction

This project investigates REE and CM partitioning in clay-rich sections of Wasatch and Fort Union Fm. coal strata (Paleocene). This study is part of the DOE PRB Carbon Ore, Rare Earth, and Critical Minerals (CORE-CM) Initiative.

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Machine learning to constrain geologic controls on critical mineral occurrence at Wyodak Mine, Powder River Basin, Wyoming

We use unsupervised machine learning (ML) to find geochemical signatures that can be used to determine REE occurrence at the mine scale. I am coupling ML outputs with 3D geologic modeling to infer why some strata are preferentially enriched. This project was done at Los Alamos National Laboratory through NETL TCF. 

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REE mobility in “brine-melt” stage during Bear Lodge carbonatite mineralization

My final dissertation project is still in its infancy but will look at REE mobility during carbonatite alteration in the magmatic-hydrothermal zone of mineralization. I will use high temperature and pressure experiments to study the mobilization, transport, and secondary precipitation of REE from primary rare earth-bearing carbonatite minerals.

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Past Research

Rare Earth Elements in Coal Combustion Waste, an

NETL Technology Commercialization Fund Project

Summer 2021

I analyzed thin sections of waste products from Wyoming coal power stations using transmitted light microscopy. I characterized fly ash and bottom ash mineralogy for use in rare earth element resource evaluation.

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Bottom ash under cross polarization.

Thermal History of Oruanui Super Eruption, Taupo Volcanic Zone, NZ

2018 - 2019

As an undergraduate in Dr. Kari Cooper's research group, I worked in the UC Davis Geochemistry Clean Lab preparing samples for MC-ICP-MS analysis. We used U-Th disequilibrium dating techniques to constrain a thermal history of the silicic magmatic system that produced the ~25.4 Ka super-eruption at Taupo Volcanic Center in New Zealand.  I also aided in modeling the diffusion of Sr through plagioclase crystals in Oruanui rhyolites.

Setting hot plate temperatures in the UC Davis Class 100 Geochemistry Clean Lab.

Presenting my work at the UC Davis Undergraduate Research Conference, 2019.

© 2021 by Sophia Stuart

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