Mineral Resources Program

The 43rd annual Mineral Commodity Summaries report from the USGS National Minerals Information Center is the earliest comprehensive source of 2019 world mineral production data. It includes information on the domestic industry structure, government programs, and tariffs as well as five-year salient statistics on more than 90 mineral commodities that are important to the U.

Geologist at Yukon Tanana Uplands Alaska.  This is part of the Earth MRI project.

Bokan Mountain, Alaska.

The Alaska North Slope is rich in gas hydrate-bearing formations which contain significant natural gas resources. The USGS has released a geologically based assessment for how much of these resources is technically recoverable.

53.8 trillion cubic feet
Estimate of the undiscovered technically recoverable amount of natural gas that is stored in

To make America’s economy and defense more secure, the Administration has released “A Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals.” Among other roles, these mineral commodities are vital to renewable energy infrastructure like solar panels, wind turbines, and batteries.

Solar Panels |

Figure 1 from USGS Fact Sheet 2019-3007 The Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI): Mapping the Nation’s Critical Mineral Resources.

Figure 1. Planned applications for data acquired during the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI). Images are from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Sources for images in left column, from top to bottom: Topography:

Table 5.  Summary of OH-related mid-infrared (MIR) spectral features of unexpanded and expanded vermiculite ores.

Notes: Vibrational positions from spectra of handpicked, ground mica flakes from the unexpanded GDS469 ore sample from Libby, MT; the unexpanded ALB5SA00 ore sample from Palabora, S. Africa; and the expanded vermiculite ores as noted.  Vibrational

Table 6.  Summary of OH-related near-infrared spectral features of unexpanded and expanded vermiculite ores.

Notes: Vibrational positions from spectra of handpicked, ground mica flakes from the unexpanded GDS469 ore sample from Libby, MT; and the expanded vermiculite ores as noted.  Vibrational assignments from this study.  o_a = OH overtone;

Table 7.  Accuracy of expanded vermiculite ore spectral source determinations and impurity detections. 

Notes: Samples evaluated for impurities using the Modified Cincinnati Method (MCM) with separates examined by Scanning Electron Microscope – Energy-Dispersive X-Ray Spectroscopy (SEM-EDS) for the presence of amphibole, talc, and/or serpentine, and using the

Table A1.  ANOVA with post hoc multiple pairwise statistical comparison between compositions of unexpanded vermiculite ore samples examined in this study.

Notes: Mg fraction = Mg/(Mg+Al^oct +Fe^oct), tetrahedral Al fraction = (Al^tet + Si), total Al, and total Fe are based on Electron Probe MicroAnalysis (EPMA) of the

Table A2.  ANOVA with post hoc multiple pairwise statistical comparison between compositions of expanded vermiculite ore samples examined in this study. 

Notes: Mg fraction = Mg/(Mg+Al^oct +Fe^oct), tetrahedral Al fraction = (Al^tet + Si), total Al, and total Fe are based on Electron Probe MicroAnalysis (EPMA) of the expanded ore