Alaska Miner Magazine, Fall 2025

Research assistant professor Florian Hofmann of the UAF Geophysical Institute’s Geochronology Lab explains the lab’s argon mass spectrometer. Also pictured is associate professor of geology Sean Regan. UAF Geophysical Institute photo

             

UAF's Alaska Critical Minerals collaborative vital to future





by representatives of the finalists to members of Congress and congressional aides. “Alaska is experienced and is ready to lead and deliver,” said Lee Ann Munk, director of the Geophysical Institute’s Alaska Critical Minerals Collaborative and lead investigator on the proposal. “Alaska is strategically essential to American critical mineral independence. “Alaska has a lot to offer, and we want to help bring CM to the domestic supply. This will create more

BY HARRY WHITED AND UAF A University of Alaska Fairbanks proposal to reduce the United States’ dependency on foreign sources of minerals critical to the technology and defense industries has been named one of 15 finalists in a National Science Foundation competition. UAF’s proposal would establish the Alaska Critical Mineral Accelerator at the UAF Geophysical Institute and could bring over 10 years of funding through the NSF’s Regional Innovation Engines program. The NSF announced the finalists in late September in Washington, D.C., in conjunction with a display

 

  

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THE ALASKA MINER - THE MAGAZINE OF THE ALASKA MINERS ASSOCIATION

FALL 2025 | ALASKAMINERS.ORG

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