Publications

The use of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is expanding because of environmental issues and the efficiency and cost savings achieved compared with use of traditional incandescent lighting. The longer life and reduced power consumption of some LEDs have led to annual energy savings, reduced maintenance costs, and lower emissions of carbon dioxide, sulfur dioxide, and nitrogen oxides from...

Platinum-group metals (PGMs) are required in a variety of commercial, industrial, and military applications for many existing and emerging technologies, yet the United States is highly dependent on foreign sources of PGMs. Information on global exploration for PGMs since 1995 has been used in this study as a basis for identifying locations where the industry has determined that...

Indium is a material that has many applications. It is used by anyone who watches television or views a computer screen. It is found in solar energy arrays and in soldering applications that are required to be lead free. In 2009, about 550 metric tons (t) of indium metal was produced from primary sources world-wide; it was estimated that the United States consumed about 110 t of indium...

No abstract available.

This report provides a perspective on the amount of water necessary for conventional gold heap-leach operations. Water is required for drilling and dust suppression during mining, for agglomeration and as leachate during ore processing, to support the workforce (requires water in potable form and for sanitation), for minesite reclamation, and to compensate for water lost to evaporation...

This report provides a perspective on the amount of water used by a conventional copper flotation plant. Water is required for many activities at a mine-mill site, including ore production and beneficiation, dust and fire suppression, drinking and sanitation, and minesite reclamation. The water required to operate a flotation plant may outweigh all of the other uses of water at a mine...

Each chapter of the 2012 edition of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries (MCS) includes information on events, trends, and issues for each mineral commodity as well as discussions and tabular presentations on domestic industry structure, Government programs, tariffs, 5-year salient statistics, and world production and resources. The MCS is the earliest...

Cobalt-copper ± gold deposits of the Idaho cobalt belt, including the deposits of the Blackbird district, have been analyzed for their sulfur, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen isotope compositions to improve the understanding of ore formation. Previous genetic hypotheses have ranged widely, linking the ores to the sedimentary or diagenetic history of the host Mesoproterozoic sedimentary...

Domestic production of industrial sand and gravel in 2011 was about 30 Mt (33 million st), increasing slightly compared with 2010. Some important end uses for industrial sand and gravel include abrasives, filtration, foundry, glassmaking, hydraulic fracturing sand (frac sand) and silicon metal applications.

Common clay is a natural, fine-grained material composed of hydrous aluminum silicates. Shale is a laminated sedimentary rock formed by the consolidation of clay, mud and/or silt.

The article offers information on the mineral, boron. Boron compounds, particularly borates, have more commercial applications than its elemental relative which is a metalloid. Making up the 90% of the borates that are used worldwide are colemanite, kernite, tincal, and ulexite. The main borate deposits are located in the Mojave Desert of the U.S., the Tethyan belt in southern Asia, and...

World fluorspar demand continued to show signs of recovery from 2008-2009 recession. In 2011, nearly all fluorspar (CaF2) consumed in the United States was imported. Hastie Mining and Trucking Co. produced some fluorspar as a byproduct from its limestone quarry operations in Illinois. In addition, a small amount of usable synthetic fluorspar was produced from industrial waste streams.