Dataset for mineral resource inventory of North Dakota

This data release contains the geospatial resources that were used by the USGS to compile the mineral resource inventory for the state of North Dakota, developed by the Mineral Resource Program (MRP) staff of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) at the request of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The mineral resources inventory was published as a USGS open-file report and can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20211057. Commodities considered under this inventory include Critical Minerals as listed in the Federal Register (May 18, 2018), along with sodium sulfate, frac or proppant sand, bentonite and ceramic-grade kaolinite. Other selected leasable and salable mineral commodities were also inventoried, based on information provided to the USGS by BLM. This data release includes published GIS data and their accompanying original metadata, along with GIS data sourced from publications that was created for use with this minerals inventory investigation. The following numbered folders are included: “1_Georeferenced_TIFs”: georeferenced images used for locating, identifying and creating vector data representing those mineral assets that were herein inventoried; “2_Minerals_databases”: national mineral databases available in digital format, LR2000, MRDS, USMIN—North Dakota-related data, and NDAML (North Dakota Abandoned Mine Land); “3_NDGISHUB”: a digital geologic map of North Dakota, and “4_Feature_ classes”: feature classes digitized by the authors and used to visually represent the distribution of the mineral assets being inventoried. Note that the feature classes in the “4_Feature_ classes” folder do not contain individual metadata files - all descriptive information for them can be found in the "ND_metadata.xml" metadata file.