The major mineral resources in USA is vested in the mining industry which is one of the most technologically advanced industries in the world.
The US mining industry incorporates some of the best technology available to provide safe and sustainable mining options.
The mining industry strengthens the country’s economy and also provides numerous well-paid job opportunities. Available information state that over 621,000 people were employed by the U.S. mining industry as of 2017.
The United States of America is a land with vast natural resources, the major mineral resources in USA includes: coal, copper, lead, uranium, molybdenum, nickel, phosphates, silver, rare earth elements, bauxite, gold, iron, mercury, zinc, potash, tungsten, petroleum and natural gas.
The United States also have domestic reserves of five commodities: manganese, niobium, strontium, tantalum, and tin.
Reclassifying resources as reserves requires considerable investment and effort to conduct exploration and economic feasibility analysis.
List of Major Mineral Resources in USA.
Total mineral resources in United States are approximately $45 trillion, almost 90% of which are mining industry, copper and coal. Here’s the list of the major natural resources in USA:
1. U.S. Coal.
United States of America has the world’s largest coal reserves with about 475 billion tons and accounts for about 27% of the total world reserves. The demand for minerals within the US itself is very high; for example, its construction industry consumes nearly 51% of copper mined in the country.
The United States have a rich supply of mineral, energy, and forest resources. The U.S. has abundant supplies of coal, copper, lead, iron, natural gas, timber, bauxite, and uranium. 18% of the land in the U.S. is arable land.
2. United States Crude Oil.
As of 2019, Wikipedia opined that the United States is the world’s largest oil producer. The oil industry extracted a record high 4.47 billion barrels of crude oil in the United States in 2019 (around 12.25 million barrels per day), worth an average wellhead price of US$55 per barrel.
Crude oil is produced in 32 U.S. states and in U.S. coastal waters. In 2020, about 71% of total U.S. crude oil production came from five states. In 2020, about 14.6% of U.S. crude oil was produced from wells located offshore in the federally administered waters of the Gulf of Mexico.
The United States holds 35,230,000,000 barrels of proven oil reserves as of 2016, ranking 11th in the world and accounting for about 2.1% of the world’s total oil reserves of 1,650,585,140,000 barrels. The United States has proven reserves equivalent to 4.9 times its annual consumption.
3. U.S. Copper.
Earth’s largest and purest copper deposits are found around North America’s Great Lakes. At some point, Native Americans learned to harvest the ore and heat, hammer, and grind it into tools. Of the world’s reserves of copper about one-quarter of the deposits are economically recoverable now or in the near future. Of this reserve base about 16% (198 billion pounds of copper) is in the USA.
United States is copper self-sufficiency, energy efficiency and recyclability. The availability of major domestic deposits makes the USA self-sufficient in copper. This is in stark contrast to aluminum which, despite recent advances in domestic supply due to recycling of beverage cans, has only averaged 20% US self-sufficiency.
In 2020, the United States produced some 1.2 million metric tons of copper from mines. The mine production of copper in the U.S. peaked at 1.4 million metric tons in 2016.
4. U.S. Agricultural Resources.
Agriculture is a major industry in the United States, which is a net exporter of food. Wheat, corn, other grains, fruits, vegetables, cotton, Beef, pork, poultry, dairy products, fish, turkeys, tomatoes, potatoes, peanuts, and sunflower seeds constitute some of the major holdovers from the agricultural endowment of the United States America.
The United States’ role as a leader in agricultural production and consumption is due in part to having climates that are good for agriculture, sophisticated infrastructure systems, the most arable land available, a variety of produce, and suitable amounts of rainfall and climate stability.
5. U.S. Exports Resources.
The U.S. is a major exporter of technology, consumer goods, information systems, and foodstuffs. Industrial supplies (chemicals) Telecommunications equipment, motor vehicle parts, aircraft Medicines, automobiles, computers.
Other major mineral resources in USA are:
- Lead,
- Uranium,
- Molybdenum,
- Nickel,
- Phosphates,
- Silver,
- Rare Earth Elements,
- Bauxite,
- Gold,
- Iron,
- Mercury,
- Zinc,
- Potash,
- Tungsten,
- Petroleum And Natural Gas
- Manganese,
- Niobium,
- Strontium,
- Tantalum,
- Tin
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