Critical Minerals Report & Map

[Clay Diggins]

The USGS just released their latest Professional Paper Critical mineral resources of the United States–Economic and environmental geology and prospects for future supply.

This thing is a monster! 862 pages and a 170 Mb download.

That is a big download for a lot of people so we shrink their bloated PDF down to 30 Mb. It's got all the stuff the bigger one does but the graphics are scaled down to web user size.
You can download the full 862 page report directly from Land Matters.

This huge report is fine in itself but to really understand what's in it we figured a map of all the locations would help.
You can load up the Critical Minerals interactive Map right in your browser and study it along with your book. We've added the mines of the world as well as some basic base layers so you can compare the report locations to known historical and current mines. We'll be adding more features to that map soon.

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[Backwoodsbob]

Thanks, I might be able to use this. Do they have lidar photos?

 

[Capt Nemo]

Here's something Land Matters has missed!

Zircon- Rock Elm Disturbance
There is/was a gravel pit in the area of the crater uplift. Reidite, which is zircon subjected to intense heat and pressure, is found there (1 of 4 places on earth). You will see zircon in your pan at Nugget Lake Co Park. It will push out the black sand with it's SG of 7. You'll find a gray very fine sand in your pan after fanning back the black sand and the gold will be under that. You also find lots of blue rocks that might be a kimberlite, and diamonds have been found.

 

[Clay Diggins]

Land Matters just presented the report that was written Capt Nemo. We don't modify the content of the public documents we are making available.

Reidite is not on the critical minerals list. In fact Reidite is extremely rare and the entire world's supply is probably a lot less than an ounce. The biggest Redite crystal known is 0.00039 of an inch long and was made in a laboratory. 0.00039 of an inch is less than 20% the width of a human hair. Invisible to the human eye. Neet stuff but not what the report is about.

Zircon itself is not extremely rare. The oldest rocks on the surface of the earth are composed of Zircon. Zircon is about 4 times more abundant than gold in the earths crust. Zircon is often found in the pans of prospectors in areas where the exposed rock is of great age. In can be a PIA to process at 4.7 SG but there is no market for small quantities so to the prospector it's just heavy sand that needs to be separated from the other minerals.

U.S. mines produce about 32,000 pounds of Zirconium a year. The marketable (and usable) product is Zirconium, not Zircon itself. Zircon is about 2% Zirconium. Most of the Zirconium the U.S. consumes comes from South Africa and Australia. Zircon and Zirconium are byproducts of other mining operations. I don't know of any zircon mineral mines but there might be a deposit worth mining for Zircon mineral alone if you could figure out a way to get it transported and processed.

This Critical Minerals Report is not about valuable or rare mineral deposits. It is about identifying minerals that are needed by U.S. industries that are not mined in the U.S. in sufficient quantities to meet that need. Here is the definition of critical minerals as used in the report:

Those minerals that have a supply chain that is vulnerable to disruption, and that serve an essential function in the manufacture of a product, the absence of which would cause significant economic or security consequence.

Heavy Pans

 

[Clay Diggins]

Thanks, I might be able to use this. Do they have lidar photos?

Lidar is remote sensing with a laser. It does not produce photographs.
The report might help you, depending on what you are looking for but it contains no lidar information.

Heavy Pans

 

[Backwoodsbob]

What can you use to find a hidden cave or underground structures? Thanks for your response. Is its IR photos?

 

[Goldwasher]

G.P.RBut, you still have to use boots and eyeballs

 

[Backwoodsbob]

Thanks, I'm checking into GPR. One guys gave me a price of 4900. The fist day 1400. Each additional day. Seems high for me but that was the first quote.