Jared Freiburg is a mineral resource geologist at the Illinois State Geological Survey and serves as the head of the Critical & Strategic Minerals Section. He earned his B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and completed his Ph.D. at the University of Greifswald, Germany.

Freiburg began his career in mineral exploration before joining ISGS, where he played a pivotal role in leading geological efforts for key projects focused on geologic carbon dioxide storage in the Illinois Basin, including the Illinois Basin Decatur Project. He established the advanced petrographic characterization laboratory at ISGS and, in 2022, founded the Critical & Strategic Minerals Section, successfully securing millions in federal and state funding for critical minerals research.

His research interests encompass a wide range of topics, including sedimentology, basin evolution, Precambrian geology, Mississippi Valley-type mineral deposits, mineral exploration, mining, and mineral processing. Currently, Freiburg’s research is centered on critical mineral deposits located in and around the Illinois Basin, focusing on their characterization, evaluation, and potential development opportunities.

Outside of work, Freiburg enjoys spending quality time with his family and attending his children’s sporting events, and he is an avid collector and connoisseur of fine Midwest mineral specimens, with a particular emphasis on the Illinois Fluorspar and Upper Mississippi Valley Lead-Zinc districts.

Charles Bopp is a Resource Geologist in the Critical & Strategic Minerals Section of the Illinois State Geological Survey supporting projects in conventional, unconventional, and waste reuse for critical mineral resources, as well as carbon capture and storage. Bopp’s recent research in these fields includes resource estimation studies of critical minerals in coal seams, waste, and tailings piles; engineering studies in the fields of tailings and waste valorization and zero-waste mining, and work on resource classification and reporting in CCUS projects. Bopp previously spent a decade in the oil and gas industry and worked as an academician and administrator as well. He earned a Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, is a licensed Professional Geologist in Illinois, New York, and Texas, and lives outside Chicago, Illinois.