Mineral Commodities

Our objective is to develop a national-scale, geospatial database that is the authoritative source of the most important mines, mineral deposits, and mineral districts of the United States.

The National Minerals Information Center publishes statistics and information on the worldwide supply of, demand for, and flow of minerals and materials essential to the U.S. economy, the national security, and protection of the environment. The annual Mineral Commodity Summaries Report contains contains estimates covering nonfuel mineral industry data for over 90 individual minerals and materials...

Alaska is dominated by a history of tectonic events that foster mobilization and concentration of a wide variety of mineral commodities that are critical to the US economy and are vital to national defense, renewable-energy, and emerging electronics technologies.

In this time of increased focus on renewable energy technologies, rare earth elements (REEs) are of critical importance. For example, neodymium (Nd) is a REE used in the generator and motor magnets of wind turbines and electric vehicles. Reliance on REE imports puts the U.S. at high risk for supply disruption. The project will integrate geology, geophysics, petrology, geochronology, and economic...

Our project will characterize the primary critical minerals (minerals that contain critical elements in their base structure) that are not yet in the USGS Spectral Library. We propose to increase understanding of the spectral indicators of critical minerals using lab-based studies of hand specimens and drill core, hyperspectral field scanning, and hyperspectral images collected from aircraft.

We support the geospatial component of Mineral Resources Program research and provide public access to research results and geospatial information. We facilitate all aspects of the data life cycle, including the publication and archiving of geospatial information and products. We also develop and steward national-scale data layers considered foundational to the Mineral Resources Program as well as...

The primary goal of this project is to ensure the availability of state-of-the-art mineralogical analyses and, when needed, development of new analytical methods that can be applied to topical studies in Energy and Minerals Mission Area, as well as the other mission areas. The project includes mineralogy by X-ray diffraction (XRD), qualitative and semi-quantitative x-ray fluorescence spectroscopy...

The purpose of this project is to trace the lithium (Li) geochemical cycle in the Great Basin, with an emphasis on the pathways that lead to the development of lithium clay and brine resources.

This project supports the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (EarthMRI) by developing a mineral systems approach for defining focus areas. This project is investigating domestic sources of critical minerals in three sequential stages: inventory, research, and assessment. 1) Inventory the abundance of critical minerals in ore, minerals, and processed materials from major deposits in each system...

The USGS National Minerals Information Center canvasses domestic and international mineral industries on production and production values. State Minerals Statistics and Information are compiled and presented in the Mineral Commodity Summaries and the mineral commodity chapters in Volume 1 of the Minerals Yearbook. State chapters are in the Minerals Yearbook Volume II - Area Reports: Domestic...

USGS is conducting sampling, monitoring, and modeling in the Patagonia Mountains and nearby regions in Arizona to identify contaminant risk potential of legacy and proposed mine sites and to develop classification criteria for predicting vulnerabilities and targeted sources and sinks of metal contaminants.

The Southeastern United States contains numerous granites of the type that contain high concentrations of rare earth elements. We are conducting studies of these granites to advance rare earth element (REE) resource identification and assessment by resulting in an improved understanding of the fundamental source rock types, modes and occurrences, and geochemical parameters necessary for the mass...