Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

A proposed U.S. resource classification system

January 1, 1979

Energy is a worldwide problem calling for worldwide communication to resolve the many supply and distribution problems. Essential to a communication problem is a definition and comparability of elements being communicated. The U.S. Geological Survey, with the cooperation of the U.S. Bureau of Mines and the U.S. Department of Energy, has devised a classification system for all mineral resources, the principles of which we believe offer the possibility of world communication. At this time several other systems, extant or under development (Potential Gas Committee of the U.S., United Nations Resource Committee, and the American Society of Testing and Materials), are internally consistent and provide easy communication linkage. The system in use by the uranium community in the United States, however, ties resource quantities to Forward-Cost dollar values rendering them inconsistent with other classifications and not therefore comparable. The paper will then develop the rationale for the new USGS resource classification and note its benefits relative to a Forward-Cost classification and its relationship specifically to other extant classifications.

Publication Year 1979
Title A proposed U.S. resource classification system
DOI 10.3133/ofr791553
Authors Charles D. Masters
Publication Type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Series Title Open-File Report
Series Number 79-1553
Index ID ofr791553
Record Source USGS Publications Warehouse