Highlights

• North Dakota Geological Survey has identified potentially economic concentrations of lithium in oilfield wastewater and REEs, gallium, and germanium in lignite coal deposits across the state.
• Nearly 1,000 analyses since 2015 confirm elevated critical mineral concentrations in the Williston Basin, meeting DOE screening thresholds for promising feedstocks.
• While geological presence is confirmed, commercial-scale extraction has not yet occurred and technologies for economic separation from complex host materials remain under development.

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North Dakota may be best known for oil and coal, but emerging research and exploration suggest that rare earth elements (REEs) and other critical minerals could also lie beneath its Plains. According to a recent Prairie Public report, geologists with the North Dakota Geological Survey (opens in a new tab) (NDGS) are investigating lithium in oilfield wastewater and notable concentrations of REEs, gallium, and germanium in the state’s vast lignite coal deposits—signals that North Dakota could eventually become a meaningful domestic source of these essential materials.

Coal, Oil Waste, and Critical Minerals — A New Frontier

In a Prairie Public piece, NDGS geologist Levi Moxness highlights early findings suggesting that oil extraction wastewater contains lithium at potentially economic levels near the Canadian border, pointing to commercial activity by Prairie Lithium (opens in a new tab) on the Canadian side of the Dupre Formation.

Moxness also notes that lignite coal seams across North Dakota host potentially economic concentrations of rare earth elements, as well as gallium and germanium—critical inputs for semiconductors and advanced electronics. He adds that university researchers are exploring extraction pathways from coal and that uranium may also be present in some formations.

What the Science Says Beneath the Surface

North Dakota’s geological survey and academic partners have been studying this potential for years. NDGS has compiled nearly 1,000 analyses of rare earth content in lignite since 2015, documenting elevated concentrations across the Williston Basin. Recent NDGS reports, including RI-134 and RI-137 by Moxness and colleagues, document enrichment patterns beneath the Rhame Bed and across southwestern North Dakota that are consistent with REE occurrence in lignites and associated sediments.

Academic and government research at the University of North Dakota and its Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC (opens in a new tab)) further supports this work. Studies since 2020 have shown that low-rank coals, including North Dakota lignite, can meet or exceed U.S. Department of Energy screening thresholds for promising rare earth and critical mineral feedstocks—at least from a geological standpoint.  Meaning its still early days.

Weighing Promise Against Practicality

It is important to separate geological presence from commercial reality. While the evidence increasingly confirms that REEs and other critical minerals exist in North Dakota’s subsurface—particularly in lignite and oilfield brines—no commercial-scale extraction has yet occurred. Technologies for economically separating these elements from complex host materials remain under development, and the continuity, grade, and recoverability of deposits must be proven before capital-intensive projects can move forward.

Strategic Significance

Still, the strategic implications are difficult to ignore. Domestic sources of lithium, REEs, gallium, and germanium would help reduce U.S. reliance on foreign—and often geopolitically fragile—supply chains. As demand accelerates for electric vehicles, renewable energy systems, AI hardware, and defense technologies, North Dakota’s unique geology, combined with its existing energy infrastructure, makes it a compelling, if still early-stage, frontier in America’s critical minerals strategy.

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