Regional locations and general geologic setting of known deposits of major nonfuel mineral commodities. Originally compiled in five parts by diverse authors, combined here for convenience despite likely inconsistencies among the regional reports.

These regional reports are designed to inform the non-earth scientist about the regional locations and general geologic setting of known deposits of major nonfuel mineral commodities.

Explains how we use these chemical elements, where they come from, and characteristics of the global supply and demand for them.

Magmatic sulfide deposits containing nickel and copper, with or without platinum-group elements, account for approximately 60 percent of the world’s nickel production. Most of the remainder of the Ni production is deriv

An overview of the mineral resource classifications, terms, and definitions used in PP 1802. Includes a review of the history of the use and meaning of the term “critical” applied to minerals or materials.

Approximate locations and short descriptions of mines, deposits, and districts where critical minerals are found. The critical minerals are discussed in USGS Professional Paper 1802 many of these locations are described in further detail in that report.

Niobium and tantalum are found together in nature because they have similar physical and chemical properties. Niobium is used in high-strength steel alloys, while tantalum is used in electronic capacitors.

Delineated areas of the world that are geologically permissive for the occurrence of undiscovered selected nonfuel mineral resources together with estimates of the quantity and quality of the resources

Antimony’s leading use is as a fire retardant in safety equipment and in household goods such as mattresses. The U.S. Government has considered antimony to be a critical mineral mainly because of its use in military applications.

Selenium is a trace element in Earth's crust. Modern uses for selenium include energy-efficient windows that limit heat transfer and thin-film photovoltaic cells that convert solar energy into electricity.

496 deposits related to rocks or mineralizing events in this area were identified and compiled into a database to develop a space/time classification for MRS-related mineral deposits. Includes data from MRDS, USMIN, and Ontario Mineral Deposit Inventory.

Geological setting, characteristics of the deposit itself, and detailed geochemical analyses of rocks in and around the deposit.

Barite (barium sulfate, BaSO4) is vital to the oil and gas industry because it is a key constituent of the mud used to drill oil and gas wells. Elemental barium is an additive in optical glass, ceramic glazes, and other products.

Cobalt is a silvery gray metal that has diverse uses due to its ferromagnetism, hardness and wear-resistance when alloyed with other metals, low thermal and electrical conductivity, high melting point, multiple valences, and color effects with silica.

Global distribution of mineral resource features for 22 minerals or mineral commodities considered critical to the economy and security of the United States as of 2017, included as part of USGS Professional Paper 1802. Data are provided in Esri file geodatabase and shapefile format.

Steelmaking and refractory applications in metallurgy use the largest amount of produced graphite; however, emerging technology uses in large-scale fuel cell, battery, and lightweight high-strength composites promise more uses.

Manganese is used to make steel, where it serves as a purifying agent in iron-ore refining and as an alloy.

Rhenium is a rare metal that has an extremely high melting point and a heat-stable crystalline structure. It is used in high-temperature superalloys, to make turbine blades for jet aircraft engines and is a catalyst for petroleum refining.

Tin (Sn) is one of the first metals to be used by humans. Almost without exception, tin is used as an alloy. Its major uses today are for cans and containers, construction materials, transportation materials, and solder.

Titanium colors paint, paper, plastic, rubber, and wallboard. Because of its strength and corrosion resistance, titanium metal and its alloys are used in the aerospace industry as well as for welding rod coatings, biological implants, and consumer goods.

Zirconium and hafnium are corrosion-resistant metals that are widely used in the chemical and nuclear industries. Most zirconium is consumed in the form of the main ore mineral zircon or as zirconium oxide or other zirconium chemicals.

Beryllium is a mineral commodity that is used in a variety of industries to make products that are essential for the smooth functioning of a modern society.

Fluorine compounds are essential in numerous chemical and manufacturing processes. Fluorspar is the commercial name for fluorite (isometric CaF2), which is the only fluorine mineral that is mined on a large scale.

Gallium is a soft, silvery metallic element with an atomic number of 31 and the chemical symbol Ga. Gallium is used in a wide variety of products that have microelectronic components containing either gallium arsenide (GaAs) or gallium nitride (GaN).

Germanium and indium are used in electronics devices, flat-panel display screens, light-emitting diodes, night vision devices, optical fiber, optical lens systems, and solar power arrays.

Vanadium is used primarily in the production of steel alloys; as a catalyst for the chemical industry; in the making of ceramics, glasses, and pigments; and in vanadium redox-flow batteries (VRBs) for large-scale storage of electricity.

Rock physical property measurements to help understand causative sources of gravity and magnetic survey anomalies in this area. Data are provided in CSV format.

Tellurium is a rare element obtained as a byproduct of mining for other commodities whose main uses are in photovoltaic solar cells and as an additive to copper, lead, and steel alloys in various types of machinery.

Lithium, the lightest of all metals, is used in air treatment, batteries, ceramics, glass, metallurgy, pharmaceuticals, and polymers.

The platinum-group elements (PGEs)—platinum, palladium, rhodium, ruthenium, iridium, and osmium—are metals that have similar physical and chemical properties and tend to occur together in nature. PGEs are indispensable to many industrial applications.

Because of their unusual physical and chemical properties, the REEs have diverse defense, energy, industrial, and military technology applications including glass, petroleum refining, automobiles, and magnets.

A compilation of global data on cobalt-copper-gold deposits hosted by metasedimentary rocks refines previous descriptive models for their occurrence and provides important information for mineral resource assessments and exploration programs.

Regional tracts of land where the geology is permissive for the occurrence of undiscovered porphyry copper deposits, with probabilistic estimates of undiscovered resources, along with tables of discovered deposits and prospects.

Locations of focus areas to be used for planning and collection of geophysical, geological, and topographic (lidar) data pertaining to the study of rare earth element resources in the US.