U.S. Mine Produced $86.3 Billion in Minerals in 2019

For 2019, critical minerals as defined by President Trump’s Executive Order 13817, comprised 14 of the 17 mineral commodities with 100 percent net import reliance and 17 additional critical mineral commodities had a net import reliance greater than 50 percent of apparent consumption. The largest number of nonfuel mineral commodities were supplied to the U.S. from China, followed by Canada.

The Trump administration released, “A Federal Strategy to Ensure a Reliable Supply of Critical Minerals,” last year to make America’s economy and defense more secure. The strategy directed the U.S. Department of the Interior to locate domestic supplies of critical minerals, ensure access to information necessary for the study and production of minerals and expedite permitting for minerals projects. Pursuant to the federal strategy, USGS launched its Earth Mapping Resources Initiative (Earth MRI) to acquire geologic, geophysical and topographic data to help characterize the distribution of critical minerals and identify areas in which more data would improve our understanding of undiscovered critical mineral resources.

In addition, the USGS will conduct at least one multi-commodity critical mineral resource assessment every two years, supplying the results to Federal land managers and the public. Meanwhile, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management will work with partners such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to develop a method for assessing critical mineral potential in the Federal Offshore and Exclusive Economic Zone.

The $86.3 billion worth of nonfuel minerals produced by U.S. mines in 2019 comprised industrial minerals, which includes natural aggregates as well as ferrous and nonferrous metals.

The estimated value of U.S. industrial minerals production in 2019 was $58.2 billion, about 3% more than that of 2018. Of this total, the value of industrial minerals production was dominated by crushed stone and construction sand and gravel (construction aggregates) at $27.7 billion. Crushed stone was the leading nonfuel mineral commodity in 2019 accounting for 22 percent of the total value of U.S. nonfuel mineral production. 

U.S. metal mine production in 2019 was estimated to be $28.1 billion, or almost $500 million higher than in 2018. The principal contributors to the total value of metal mine production in 2018 were gold (32 percent), copper (28 percent), iron ore (19 percent) and zinc (7 percent).

U.S. production of 13 mineral commodities were valued at more than $1 billion each in 2019. These were, in decreasing order of value: crushed stone, cement, construction sand and gravel, gold, copper, industrial sand and gravel, iron ore, lime, salt, zinc, soda ash, phosphate rock and molybdenum concentrates.

In 2019, 13 states each produced more than $2 billion worth of nonfuel mineral commodities. The states were, ranked in descending order of production value: Nevada, Arizona, Texas, Minnesota, California, Florida, Utah, Alaska, Missouri, Michigan, Wyoming, Georgia and Pennsylvania.

Some other findings in the report include:

·  Critical Minerals—Byproduct vanadium was produced in Utah for the first time since 2013.

·  Recycled Materials—Of the $36.1 billion of domestically recycled products, iron and steel scrap contributed $17.6 billion.