Earth MRI focus areas

Locations of focus areas to be used in the Earth Mapping Resource Initiative (Earth MRI) for planning and collection of geophysical, geological, geochemical, and topographic (lidar) data pertaining to the study of critical mineral resources in the US.

View

Show in a web browser window:

Interactive map interface, phase 3 focus areas

Conterminous US

Alaska

Show in Google Earth or other KML viewer:

earthmrifocus.kml (uncompressed KML file 287M bytes)

earthmrifocus.kmz (compressed KML file 87M bytes)

Show in your GIS using OGC web services:

https://mrdata.usgs.gov/services/emri-focus (WMS, version 1.3.0)

https://mrdata.usgs.gov/services/emri-focus (WFS, version 1.1.0)

OGC WMTS tile services at https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mapcache/wmts/ by mineral system:

Layer name	Mineral system
ms001	Alkalic porphyry
ms002	Arsenide
ms003	Basin brine path
ms004	Chemical weathering
ms005	Climax-type
ms006	Coeur d'Alene-type
ms007	IOA-IOCG
ms008	Lacustrine evaporite
ms009	Mafic magmatic
ms010	Magmatic REE
ms011	Marine chemocline
ms012	Metamorphic
ms013	Meteoric recharge
ms014	Orogenic
ms015	Placer
ms016	Porphyry Cu-Mo-Au
ms017	Porphyry Sn (granite-related)
ms018	Reduced intrusion-related
ms019	Volcanogenic seafloor
ms020	Carlin-type
ms021	Hybrid magmatic REE / basin brine path
ms022	Marine evaporite
ms023	Meteoric convection

Download

Get the entire data set:

focusAreas_emri_gdb.zip (File geodatabase 83M bytes)

focusAreas_emri_shp.zip (Shapefile 148M bytes)

EMRI_focus_area_data_table_csv.zip (CSV 857k bytes)

Search focus areas by mineral system, deposit type, commodity, or state

Mineral systems-commodities-critical minerals: Table 1 of OFR 2020-1042, JSON format.

A re-expression of Table 1 in JSON format, including bibliographic references.

Documentation

Metadata:

Outline - Questions & Answers - Plain text - XML

Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI)

An effort undertaken by USGS as part of the Federal strategy to ensure secure and reliable supplies of critical minerals.

Earth MRI focus area service

Web service (GeoJSON) providing information about focus areas for studies of the Earth MRI whose characteristics match a specific mineral system, deposit type, commodity, or state.

Earth MRI focus area category service

Web service providing category information for focus areas of the Earth MRI, returning GeoJSON.

Publication

GIS, supplemental data table, and references for focus areas of potential domestic resources of critical minerals and related commodities in the United States and Puerto Rico

Dicken, C.L., Woodruff, L.G., Hammarstrom, J.M., and Crocker, K.E., 2022, GIS, supplemental data table, and references for focus areas of potential domestic resources of critical minerals and related commodities in the United States and Puerto Rico: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9DIZ9N8.

GIS for focus areas of potential domestic resources of 11 critical minerals--aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin, titanium, and tungsten (version 2.0, August 2020)

Dicken, C.L., and Hammarstrom, J.M., 2020, GIS for focus areas of potential domestic resources of 11 critical minerals--aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin, titanium, and tungsten (version 2.0, August 2020): U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P9U6SODG.

Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic resources of 11 critical minerals in the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico--Aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum-group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin, titanium, and tungsten

Hammarstrom, J.M., Dicken, C.L., Day, W.C., Hofstra, A.H., Drenth, B.J., Shah, A.K., McCafferty, A.E., Woodruff, L.G., Foley, N.K., Ponce, D.A., Frost, T.P., and Stillings, L.L., 2020, Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic resources of 11 critical minerals in the conterminous United States, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico--Aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum-group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin, titanium, and tungsten, chap. B of U.S. Geological Survey, Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic sources of critical minerals: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2019-1023, 67 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20191023B.

Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic resources of 11 critical minerals in Alaska--Aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin, titanium, and tungsten

Kreiner, D.C., and Jones, J.V., 2020, Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic resources of 11 critical minerals in Alaska--Aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin, titanium, and tungsten, chap. C of U.S. Geological Survey, Focus areas for data acquisition for potential domestic sources of critical minerals: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2019-1023, 20 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20191023C.

GIS for focus areas of potential domestic resources of 11 critical minerals: aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin, titanium, and tungsten

Dicken, C.L., and Hammarstrom, J.M., 2020, GIS for focus areas of potential domestic resources of 11 critical minerals--aluminum, cobalt, graphite, lithium, niobium, platinum group elements, rare earth elements, tantalum, tin, titanium, and tungsten: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P95CO8LR.

Systems-Deposits-Commodities-Critical Minerals Table for the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative

Hofstra, A.H., and Kreiner, D.C., 2020, Systems-Deposits-Commodities-Critical Minerals Table for the Earth Mapping Resources Initiative: U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 2020-1042, 24 p., https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20201042.

GIS and data tables for focus areas for potential domestic nonfuel sources of rare earth elements

Dicken, C.L., Horton, J.D., San Juan, C.A., Anderson, A.K., Ayuso, R.A., Bern, C.R., Bookstrom, A.A., Bradley, D.C., Bultman, M.W., Carter, M.W., Cossette, P.M., Day, W.C., Drenth, B.J., Emsbo, P., Foley, N.K., Frost, T.P., Gettings, M.E., Hammarstrom, J.M., Hayes, T.S., Hofstra, A.H., Hubbard, B.E., John, D.A., Jones, J.V.,III, Kreiner, D.C., Lund, K., McCafferty, A.E., Merchat, A.J., Ponce, D.A., Schulz, K.J., Shah, A.K., Siler, D.L., Taylor, R.D., Vikre, P.G., Walsh, G.J., Woodruff, L.G., and Zurcher, L., 2019, GIS and data tables for focus areas for potential domestic nonfuel sources of rare earth elements: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P95CHIL0.