USGS report sheds light on minerals production
United States mines in 2016 produced an estimated $74.6 billion of raw mineral materials, a slight increase from 2015, reports the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in its 40th annual Mineral Commodity Summaries report.
The Mineral Commodity Summaries report is a comprehensive source of 2016 mineral production data for the world. According to USGS, it includes statistics on more than 88 mineral commodities that are important to the U.S. economy and national security. The report also covers events, trends and issues in the domestic and international minerals industries.
According to USGS, a key finding from the report is that during 2016, the United States was 100 percent import reliant on 20 mineral commodities, including rare earths, manganese and niobium.
The report also revealed the United States produced 13 mineral commodities in 2016 that were worth more than $1 billion each. In addition, the estimated value of total U.S. industrial minerals production in 2016 was $51.6 billion, 5 percent more than that of 2015.
In 2016, 11 states produced more than $2 billion worth of non-fuel mineral commodities in 2016. According to USGS, these states, in descending order of value, include Nevada, Arizona, Texas, California, Minnesota, Florida, Alaska, Michigan, Wyoming, Missouri and Utah.
“The Mineral Commodity Summaries provide crucial, unbiased statistics that decision makers and policy makers, in both the private and public sectors, rely on to make business decisions and national policy,” says Steven Fortier, director of the USGS National Minerals Information Center. “Industries – such as steel, aerospace and electronics – processed non-fuel mineral materials and created an estimated $2.8 trillion in value-added products in 2016, which contributed 15 percent to the total U.S. gross domestic product.”
About the Author: Allison Kral
Allison Kral is the former senior digital media manager for North Coast Media (NCM). She completed her undergraduate degree at Ohio University where she received a Bachelor of Science in magazine journalism from the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism. She works across a number of digital platforms, which include creating e-newsletters, writing articles and posting across social media sites. She also creates content for NCM's Portable Plants magazine, GPS World magazine and Geospatial Solutions. Her understanding of the ever-changing digital media world allows her to quickly grasp what a target audience desires and create content that is appealing and relevant for any client across any platform.Subscribe to Pit & Quarry
If you enjoyed this article, subscribe to Pit & Quarry to receive more articles just like it.
