Assessing rare earth element concentrations in geothermal and oil and gas produced
waters: A potential domestic source of strategic mineral commodities
This study considered 224 water samples from new and archived collections matching
101 new rock samples. The study found that aqueous REEs occur at trace levels in all
analyzed samples, and sometimes exceed ocean REE concentrations by a factor of 1,000.
No significant predictive relationship to lithology category, reservoir temperature,
nor salinity was discovered, but aqueous REE concentration appears spatially controlled.
The study suggested that future research should aim to identify this predictive relationship.
