Critical Metal Minerals, 2nd Edition

Dear Colleagues,

An increasingly wide range of mineral materials are used to enable the technologies that sustain our living standard in modern society. In particular, “Critical Metals” or “Critical Minerals” have been regarded as crucial strategic resources for global high-technology applications. In 2021–2022, we announced the Special Issue "Critical Metal Minerals" (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/minerals/special_issues/Critical_Metal_Minerals ), and subsequently multiple contributions were published. We are now launching the 2nd Edition of the Special Issue, and we invite the latest research on critical metals to be published in this new Special Issue.

The critical metals generally consist of four major elemental groups: rare metals (e.g., Li, Be, Rb, Cs, W, Sn, Nb, Ta, Zr, Hf, U, and Th), rare earth elements (REEs, e.g., La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu, Sc, and Y), rare dispersed elements (e.g., Ga, Ge, Se, Cd, In, Te, Re, and Tl), and other precious metals (e.g., PGE, Cr, and Co). Most of these elements are present at very low abundances in the Earth’s upper crust and/or are difficult to efficiently extract and utilize. The rapidly growing demand for critical mineral resources worldwide requires new understandings of the characterization of metal-host minerals, the geochemistry and ore genesis of critical metal deposits, and exploration advances aiding in the discovery of new economic targets. In this regard, the present Special Issue is focused on relevant topics, including, but not limited to (1) geochemical exploration, data handling, and statistical analysis for critical minerals of economic and/or environmental importance; (2) mineralogy, geochemistry, geochronology, fluid evolution, and isotopic constraints on the genesis of critical mineral deposits; (3) experimental advances in critical metal behavior during metallogenic processes; (4) geological controls of the global or regional distribution of critical mineral deposits; (5) 3D modeling of critical metal deposits; and (6) the resource assessment of critical minerals and developments in metal extraction and recovery.

We look forward to high quality submissions that complement contributions published as part of the 1st Edition.

Prof. Dr. Pei Ni
Prof. Ruoshi Jin
Prof. Mincheng Xu
Dr. Tiangang Wang
Dr. Yinhang Cheng
Dr. Junyi Pan
Dr. Yitao Cai
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• critical metals
• geologic characteristics and setting
• geochemical exploration
• statistical data analysis
• mineral geochemistry
• petrogenesis and ore genesis
• 3D modeling
• resource assessment
• mineral processing

• Critical Metal Minerals in Minerals (15 articles)