Images

Mine wastes are produced at each stage of mineral production - mine wastes that can contain critical and other minerals, and could potentially be reprocessed. This infographic shows three kinds of mine wastes produced during mineral production, and a sense of scale of how much waste is produced:

Image for the USGS Colorado River Basin Actionable and Strategic Integrated Science and Technology (ASIST) Initiative, geonarrative about the intersection of water use for copper mining and historic drought in the Lower Colorado River Basin (primarily Arizona), April 7, 2026.

This is a partial representation of a geologic map of the Surficial geology of the glaciated region of the US. The blue dashed lines represent glacial and glaciofluvial features, roughly outlining the boundary of the glaciated region. The black outlined states represent the eight member states of the Great Lakes Geologic Mapping Coalition. 

This chart depicts funding amounts in US dollars awarded by the NCGMP's STATEMAP program by state for the time period between 1993 and 2025. Paler hues indicate lower funding amounts (with white being no funding), where darker hues show higher funding amounts. 

This photo shows members of the Utah Geological Survey staff alongside members of the Navajo Nation Department of Water Resources as they conduct a field review of the Oljeto 7.5-minute quadrangle geologic map that was produced as a joint mapping project between both groups. 

The screenshot was captured from the 3D web viewer tool created by Illinois State Geological Survey (ISGS).

This screen clipped image was generated with the Illinois State Geological Survey's 3D viewer. This map shows the surficial geology of Boon County, Illinois above a generated cross section along the red diagonal indicator line.

USGS Mineral Resources Program color by number for the critical mineral graphite.

USGS Mineral Resources Program coloring page for cassiterite and the critical mineral tin.

The mineral cassiterite, chemical formula SnO₂, is the most important mineral source for the critical mineral tin. Fun facts: tin is one of the earliest metals used by humans! The chemical symbol for tin, Sn, comes from its Latin name, stannum.

Critical Mineral Crossword Puzzle: Manganese

Manganese is listed as a "critical mineral". Learn about where we get manganese and how we use it by solving the crossword puzzle clues!

More information:

USGS Mineral Resources Program coloring page for the mineral galena and the critical mineral lead.

USGS Mineral Resources Program coloring page for the critical mineral barite.

Barite, chemical formula BaSO₄, is a critical mineral. Fun fact: barite is one of the heaviest minerals that isn't a metal.

Critical Mineral Crossword Puzzle: Rhenium.

Rhenium is listed as "critical mineral". Learn about where we get rhenium and how we use it by solving the crossword puzzle clues!

More information

USGS Mineral Resources Program Critical Mineral Word Scramble Puzzle: Tantalum

This map shows the generalized glaciated terrain of the state of Illinois. For more information, visit the Illinois State Geological Survey website. 

This graphic shows the distribution and total US dollar amount of funding received by each GLGMC member state between 2009 and 2025 since the Coalition has been part of the National Cooperative Geologic Mapping Program.

This is a partial representation of a geologic map of the Pre-Quaternary geology of the glaciated region of the US. The blue dashed lines represent glacial and glaciofluvial features, roughly outlining the boundary of the glaciated region. The black outlined states represent the eight member states of the Great Lakes Geologic Mapping Coalition. 

This image shows a street map within McHenry County, Illinois (above). The red line indicates the location of the geologic cross section (below). The red line shows an area of proposed development and the cross section indicates the existence of a sensitive aquifer along that locator line. 

False color phase map of host breccia sample from Hicks Dome, Illinois. Image includes the phases of: pyrite, fluorite, quartz, barite-celestite, brookite-anatase, fluorapatite, illite, and dolomite-calcite with Mg-enrichment.

2025 List of Critical Minerals

The 2025 List of Critical Minerals includes 60 critical minerals. 50 of these were also included on the 2022 List of Critical Minerals, and 10 are new. There are 15 rare earth elements included on the List. 

This picture illustrates a BSGMC participant student poster presented at GSA. 

David Canova, University of Barcelona, Salt structures in the Eastern External Betics fold and thrust belt, SE Iberia—Geologic maps, cross sections, and palinspastic reconstructions.