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Publications

The Center conducts analyses of and develops information on minerals-related issues, including minerals conservation, sustainability, availability, materials flow, and the economic health of the U.S. minerals industry. 

Filter Total Items: 588

Quantitative risk of earthquake disruption to global copper and rhenium supply

Earthquakes have the potential to substantially affect mining operations, potentially leading to supply chain disruptions and adversely affecting the global economy. This study explores the quantification of earthquake risk to copper and rhenium commodity supply by examining the spatial concentration of high earthquake hazard areas and the commodity-specific mining, smelting, and refining operatio
Authors
Kishor S. Jaiswal, Nicolas Luco, Emily K. Schnebele, Nedal T. Nassar, Donya Otarod

Geospatial PDF map of the compilation of GIS data for the mineral industries and related infrastructure of Africa

IntroductionIn 2021, the U.S. Geological Survey's (USGS) National Minerals Information Center (NMIC) completed the project titled "Compilation of geospatial data for the mineral industries and related infrastructure of Africa." This project aimed to leverage the expertise and capabilities of the NMIC to collect, synthesize, and interpret geospatial data to inform on the extractive resources of the
Authors
Elizabeth R. Neustaedter, Ryan F. Kemna, Abraham J. Padilla, Donya Otarod

The development of China’s monopoly over cobalt battery materials

While previous resource conflicts have often been linked to fuel minerals such as oil, future resource conflict may revolve around nonfuel minerals that enable strategic emerging technologies. During a 2010 diplomatic dispute, China reportedly blocked exports of rare earth elements to Japan, thereby leveraging China’s near-monopoly to threaten Japanese manufacturers of advanced technologies includ
Authors
Andrew L. Gulley

Grand challenges in anticipating and responding to critical materials supply risks

Critical materials are resources that are vulnerable to supply disruptions, where those disruptions can have significant adverse impacts on society. In the coming years, materials supply risks associated with the energy transition and geopolitics are likely to intensify and new risks are expected to emerge. This perspective identifies three “Grand Challenges” that represent frontier areas for crit
Authors
Anthony Ku, Elisa Alonso, Rod Eggert, Thomas Graedel, Komal Habib, Alessa Hool, Toru Muta, Dieuwertje Schrijvers, Luic Tercero, Tatiana Vakhitova, Constanze Veeh

USGS annual mining review

No abstract available.
Authors
Lori E Apodaca

Annual review 2023: Critical minerals

No abstract available.
Authors
Graham W. Lederer, James V. Jones, Darcy McPhee, Jeffrey L. Mauk, Robert R. Seal, Kate M. Campbell, Jane M. Hammarstrom, Paul A. Bedrosian, Patricia Grace Macqueen, Garth E. Graham, Federico Solano, George N. D. Case, David George Pineault

Mineral commodity summaries 2024

Each mineral commodity chapter of the 2024 edition of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries (MCS) includes information on events, trends, and issues for each mineral commodity as well as discussions and tabular presentations on domestic industry structure, Government programs, tariffs, 5-year salient statistics, and world production, reserves, and resources. The MCS is the

Mass-balance-consistent geological stock accounting: A new approach toward sustainable management of mineral resources

Global resource extraction raises concerns about environmental pressures and the security of mineral supply. Strategies to address these concerns depend on robust information on natural resource endowments, and on suitable methods to monitor and model their changes over time. However, current mineral resources and reserves reporting and accounting workflows are poorly suited for addressing mineral
Authors
Mark U. Simoni, Johannes A. Drielsma, Magnus Ericsson, Andrew G. Gunn, Sigurd Heiberg, Tom A. Heldal, Nedal T. Nassar, Evi Petavratz, Daniel B. Müller

Rare earth element sources, end-use demand trends, and hydrometallurgical separations

Rare earth elements are increasing in demand due to the movement towards electrification. In particular, there is a growing need for high performance rare earth permanent magnets for motors and generators used to convert electrical energy to mechanical energy, and vice versa. Current trends in rare earth demand are reviewed and discussed as the specific rare earth metal demand can influence the ch
Authors
James Vaughan, Vitor L. Gontijo, Rick Valenta, Elisa Alonso

China, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and artisanal cobalt mining from 2000 through 2020

From 2000 through 2020, demand for cobalt to manufacture batteries grew 26-fold. Eighty-two percent of this growth occurred in China and China’s cobalt refinery production increased 78-fold. Diminished industrial cobalt mine production in the early-to-mid 2000s led many Chinese companies to purchase ores from artisanal cobalt miners in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), many of whom have
Authors
Andrew L. Gulley

Rock-to-metal ratios of the rare earth elements

The relative quantities of ore mined and waste rock (i.e., overburden) removed to produce the rare earth elements—their rock-to-metal ratios—were calculated for 21 individual operations or regions covering nearly all mine production in 2018. The results indicate that the rock-to-metal ratios for the total rare earth elements ranged from a low of 1.6 × 101 to a high of 3.6 × 103, with operations in
Authors
Nedal T. Nassar, Graham W. Lederer, Abraham J. Padilla, Joseph Gambogi, Daniel James Cordier, Jaime L. Brainard, Joseph D. Lessard, Ryan Charab

Mineral commodity summaries 2023

Each mineral commodity chapter of the 2023 edition of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Commodity Summaries (MCS) includes information on events, trends, and issues for each mineral commodity as well as discussions and tabular presentations on domestic industry structure, Government programs, tariffs, 5-year salient statistics, and world production, reserves, and resources. The MCS is the
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