UA minerals study one of only three funded nationally

The USGS Mineral Resources External Research Program (MRERP) announced that only the top 3 projects will be funded in FY2008, with one of those being from the University of Arizona.

Professors Mark Barton, Lukas Zürcher, and Eric Seedorff will carry out the project, "Comparative Study of Jurassic To Early Tertiary Igneous-Related Metallogeny in the Basin and Range Province."

The Mineral Resource Program’s total FY 2008 funding is $800,000 below FY 2007 and $1.9 million below FY 2006. As a result, the USGS originally proposed to eliminate the external grants funding completely, but has relented and is funding the MRERP at $250,000. [top: Mark Barton; bottom: Eric Seedorff]

The announcement is posted at http://minerals.usgs.gov/mrerp/2008.html.

In 2006, 15 projects were funded but in 2007, the program would only to commit to continuing funding for 3 of the 2006 projects, including one for Eric Seedorff at UA, "Dismembered Laramide porphyry deposits in southern Arizona: Links to Catalina core complex." No new projects were funded in 2007.