Energy & Mineral News: UGS, BHP Xplor, and Utah’s Mineral Future
by Stephanie E. Mills and James McVey
Mills and McVey (right of center) pictured with other members of the 2026 BHP Xplor cohort while visiting the Olympic Dam mine in South Australia.
In early 2026, the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) was selected to join the prestigious BHP Xplor minerals industry accelerator program. The UGS Xplor team is led by Senior Geologist and Metallic Minerals section manager Dr. Stephanie Mills and Project Geologist James McVey. Run by BHP, the world’s largest global mining company, the Xplor program is designed to support and fast-track innovative, early-stage geological concepts in mineral exploration.
The UGS’s selection represents a major achievement and global recognition for public geoscience—out of hundreds of applications globally, the UGS was chosen as part of a highly selective cohort from the top 2% of applications. The partnership between the UGS and BHP pairs decades of rigorous mapping and baseline research of a state geological survey with the global framework and the technical skills of a major minerals explorer.
What is BHP Xplor?
BHP Xplor operates as a unique global accelerator program targeting early-stage projects with unconventional or high-potential geological concepts. The program provides selected participants with $500,000 in funding, alongside structured technical, commercial, and operational coaching. The overarching goal is to lower the risk of new, innovative exploration concepts, expanding the generative pipeline for mineral discoveries essential to all aspects of modern economy and infrastructure.
The initiative features ongoing technical and business coaching as well as three in-person technical workshops and a final showcase where participants demonstrate how their project has grown during the course of the program. Xplor participants gain direct access to BHP’s network of world-class technical specialists and service providers, enabling small exploration entities to advance their scientific frameworks at an accelerated pace.
First Geological Survey Participant in Program History
While BHP Xplor has historically targeted early-stage exploration startups, the selection of the UGS marks the first time in the history of the program that a government geological survey—or any public agency—has been accepted. UGS’s success through the rigorous interview process was based on a foundation of technical excellence, quality public geoscience data, and a team motivated to do impactful work on Utah’s mineral resources.
The UGS is a crucial part of the upstream minerals economy in Utah.
The partnership between the UGS and BHP through the Xplor program highlights an evolving paradigm in public-private partnerships. State geological surveys serve as non-biased, objective scientific organizations providing pre-competitive (i.e., public) geoscience data. Within Xplor, the UGS is building a new blueprint for how public entities can leverage their expertise in foundational geoscience data within the framework of commercial exploration. The data and interpretations we produce from the Xplor program will help identify prime areas for mineral prospectivity in the state and de-risk early stage exploration for all explorers in Utah.
Intrusive unit from the Newfoundland Mountains, sampled as part of the regional fertility study the UGS is conducting through BHP Xplor.
UGS Xplor Project
The $500,000 grant provided by the Xplor program will advance regional mineral systems analysis across western Utah. Our research integrates traditional UGS mapping with new, high-resolution regional datasets, such as aeromagnetic and aeroradiometric data, released by the U.S. Geological Survey’s Earth MRI program. Central to this initiative is the concept of pre-competitive data as a form of fundamental public infrastructure. The project employs an iterative, data-driven approach that includes regional spatial-temporal mapping for copper-prospective units, crustal architecture mapping, and integration of data to map out porphyry copper prospectivity.
True to the mission of a public survey, all the data and interpretations the UGS builds throughout the Xplor program will be publicly available. Maintaining public accessibility ensures an equal opportunity ecosystem where small-cap startups, academic researchers, and major corporations operate from the same high-quality data foundation.
Future Outlook for Utah’s Mineral Resources
The UGS is a crucial part of the upstream minerals economy in Utah. The pre-competitive data that UGS and other surveys produce and deliver to the public helps create a well-characterized pipeline of generative exploration projects, which in turn supports the development of downstream operations such as mine development, operation, and mineral processing. The primary goal of minerals research at the UGS is to define Utah’s resources and deliver quality data.
By systematically mapping out Utah’s mineral provinces, including those prospective for critical minerals, we build authoritative geological foundations for mineral exploration and development. Ultimately, this cooperative framework helps anchor long-term wealth generation inside the state by reducing exploration risk, attracting minerals development, and promoting responsible stewardship of Utah’s mineral resources for generations to come.
