Mineral Resources Program
Publications
Results from our Program’s research and minerals information activities are published in USGS publications series as well as in outside journals. To follow Minerals Information Periodicals, subscribe to the Mineral Periodicals RSS feed.
Minerals Information Publications
National Mineral Information Center (NMIC) products focus on the worldwide supply of, demand for, and flow of minerals and materials. These products are organized by mineral commodity, geographic area, or monthly/annual statistical compilation.
NMIC PublicationsProduct Collections
Product collections resulting from previous science activities and external research program grant final reports.
Global Mineral Resource Assessments
Historical-Federal Government Mineral Exploration-Assistance Programs
U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources ProgramMineral resource science supporting informed decisionmaking
Tungsten skarn potential of the Yukon-Tanana Upland, eastern Alaska, USA—A mineral resource assessment
Tungsten (W) is used in a variety of industrial and technological applications and has been identified as a critical mineral for the United States, India, the European Union, and other countries. These countries rely on W imports mostly from China, which leaves them vulnerable to supply disruption. Consequently, the U.S. government...
Case, George N.D.; Graham, Garth E.; Marsh, Erin E.; Taylor, Ryan; Green, Carlin J.; Brown II, Philip J.; Labay, Keith A. Mapping critical minerals from the sky
Critical mineral resources titanium, zirconium, and rare earth elements occur in placer deposits over vast parts of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain. Key questions regarding provenance, pathways of minerals to deposit sites, and relations to geologic features remain unexplained. As part of a national effort to collect data over regions prospective...
Shah, Anjana K.; Morrow, Robert; Pace, Michael; Harris, M.Scott; Doar III, William Geochemistry and mineralogy of metallurgical slag
Slag is a waste product from the pyrometallurgical processing of natural ores or the recycling of man-made materials. This chapter provides an overview of the geochemical and mineralogical characteristics of different types of slag. A review of the analytical methods used to determine these characteristics is also provided. Ferrous slags include...
Piatak, Nadine M.; Ettler, Vojtech; Hoppe, Darryl Andre
Reconnaissance study of the major and trace element content of bauxite deposits in the Arkansas bauxite region, Saline and Pulaski Counties, central Arkansas
The Arkansas bauxite district, which comprises about 275 square miles (710 square kilometers) of central Arkansas, produced an order of magnitude more bauxite and alumina than the other bauxite districts in the United States combined. Bauxite was mined in the region continuously from 1898 to 1982. These bauxites are laterite deposits, formed from...
Van Gosen, Bradley S.; Choate, LaDonna M. Economic geology and environmental characteristics of antimony deposits
Antimony is commonly listed as a critical mineral, particularly in the United States and European Union [1]. Its criticality, or supply risk, is derived from a combination of economic vulnerability, disruption potential of supply, and trade exposure [2].Disruption potential relates a country’s ability and willingness to supply a commodity....
Seal, Robert R. USGS 2020 critical minerals review
Concerns about the lack of domestic production and availability of essential mineral raw materials were a recurring theme throughout the 20th century, particularly in the periods around armed conflicts (Congressional Research Service, 2019). These concerns resulted in the designation of particular minerals as “strategic” or “critical,” terms that...
Fortier, Steven M.; Nassar, Nedal T.; Kelley, Karen D.; Lederer, Graham W.; Mauk, Jeffrey L.; Hammarstrom, Jane M.; Day, Warren C.; Seal, Robert R. Dating fault damage along the eastern Denali fault zone with hematite (U-Th)/He thermochronometry
Unraveling complex slip histories in fault damage zones to understand relations among deformation, hydrothermal alteration, and surface uplift remains a challenge. The dextral eastern Denali fault zone (EDFZ; southwest Yukon, Canada) bounds the Kluane Ranges and hosts a variety of fault-related rocks, including hematite fault surfaces, which have...
McDermott, Robert G.; Ault, Alexis K.; Caine, Jonathan
Improved Automated Identification and Mapping of Iron Sulfate Minerals, Other Mineral Groups, and Vegetation using Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager Data, San Juan Mountains, Colorado, and Four Corners Region
Multispectral remote sensing data acquired by the Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) sensor were analyzed using a new, automated technique to generate a map of exposed mineral and vegetation groups in the western San Juan Mountains, Colo., and the Four Corners Region of the United States. Band ratio results were combined into displayed...
Rockwell, Barnaby W.; Gnesda, William R.; Hofstra, Albert H.
Petrology and geochronology of 1.48 to 1.45 Ga igneous rocks in the St. Francois Mountains terrane, southeast Missouri
The igneous geology of the St. Francois Mountains terrane in southeast Missouri is dominated by the products of 1.48 to 1.45 billion year old volcanic and plutonic magmatism but also includes volumetrically minor, compositionally bimodal contributions added during plutonism between 1.34 and 1.27 billion years ago. The 1.48 to 1.45 billion year old...
du Bray, Edward A.; Aleinikoff, John N.; Day, Warren C.; Neymark, Leonid A.; Burgess, Seth D. The role of hydrates, competing chemical constituents, and surface composition on CLNO2 formation
Atomic chlorine (Cl•) affects air quality and atmospheric oxidizing capacity. Nitryl chloride (ClNO2) – a common Cl• source–forms when chloride-containing aerosols react with dinitrogen pentoxide (N2O5). A recent study showed that saline lakebed (playa) dust is an inland source of particulate chloride (Cl–) that generates high ClNO2. However...
Royer, Haley M.; Mitroo, Dhruv; Hayes, Sarah M.; Haas, Savannah; Pratt, Kerri A; Blackwelder, Patricia; Gill, Thomas E.; Gaston, Cassandra J. Tectonic and magmatic controls on the metallogenesis of porphyry deposits in Alaska
Porphyry Cu and Mo deposits and occurrences are found throughout Alaska; they formed episodically during repeated subduction and arc-continent collisions spanning the Silurian to Quaternary. Porphyry systems occur in continental-margin and island arcs, which are broadly grouped into pre-accretionary or post-accretionary arcs. Pre-Mesozoic...
Kreiner, Douglas C.; Jones, James V.; Kelley, Karen D.; Graham, Garth E. Gondwanic inheritance on the building of the western Central Andes (Domeyko Range, Chile): Structural and thermochronological approach (U-Pb and 40Ar-39Ar)
Tectonics inheritance controls the evolution of many orogens. To unravel the role of the Gondwanan heritage (late Paleozoic to Triassic) over the building of the Central Andes in northern Chile (Domeyko Range), we performed detrital U‐Pb zircon and 40Ar/39Ar muscovite geochronology along with structural analyses (kinematics and structural...
Espinoza, Mauricio; Oliveros, Veronica; Vasquez, Paulina; Giambiagi, Laura; Morgan, Leah E.; Gonzalez, Rodrigo; Solari, Luigi; Bechis, Florencia