Investigates the complexity of mineral and metal supply chains in general and shows how they can be mapped. A supply chain is made up of all the manufacturers, suppliers, and information networks supplying materials and parts for production.

MRDS describes metallic and nonmetallic mineral resources throughout the world. Included are deposit name, location, commodity, deposit description, geologic characteristics, production, reserves, resources, and references.

Locations and characteristics of important mineral and energy resource facilities, with some permissive tracts and resource assessment information. Data are provided in Esri file geodatabase and shapefile formats.

Geochemical data for stratigraphic rock sequences containing dominantly fine-grained clastic rocks with appreciable organic carbon (above 0.5 weight percent), usually known as 'black shale facies examples' but including all fine-grained clastic rocks such as argillite, mudstone, claystone, and their low-medium grade metamorphic equivalents. Data are provide in Microsoft Access and tab-delimited text formats.