Global Assessment Applications Completed

Objectives

Project objectives were to

1. Use the results of the USGS Global Mineral Resource Assessment project to illustrate how USGS provides science in support of policy and decision-making.
2. Maintain the data library of the Global Mineral Resource Assessment project and develop customized products. The data library can be expanded as needed, and data can readily be processed to provide some level of geology-based assessment for many other types of mineral deposits worldwide.

Project Activities

Global Assessment Results

We plan to publish a digital atlas highlighting individual mineral resource assessment tracts (225 plates in total) around the world for copper in porphyry and sediment-hosted deposits. The atlas will provide a summary of mineral resource estimates of potential mineral endowment for each tract, and can be used as an example of products that could be developed for other deposit types.

Global GIS and Data Library

We will evaluate other types of data that can be combined with the global mineral resource-related data using GIS to develop products that could be used to evaluate political, socio-economic, and environmental impacts of land-use decisions associated with mineral development (for example, areas of political conflict, protected areas, poverty indices, hazards, fragile ecosystems, habitats, infrastructure, fisheries, watershed issues, etc.). The GIS file for each report is published with the report.

Science for Policy and Decision-Making

We will use the results of the global assessment (fact sheets, the non-technical atlas in progress) to help the World Bank, United States Agency for International Development, State Department, Department of Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, and National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, to provide science in support of policy and decision-making.

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