US Mines Produced Estimated $82.3 Billion in Minerals in 2020

According to this year’s report, the United States continues to significantly rely on foreign sources for many raw and processed minerals. In 2020, imports made up more than one-half of US consumption for forty-six nonfuel mineral commodities, and the United States relied entirely on imports for seventeen of those.

A number of these imported minerals are key materials for renewable energy generation and storage, and for infrastructure technologies.

In 2020, the USGS and its partners published a new methodology that evaluated the global supply of and US demand for fifty-two mineral commodities from 2007 to 2016.

Of the thirty-five minerals deemed critical to the economy and national security in 2018, the new methodology identified twenty-three mineral commodities, including cobalt, niobium, tungsten and certain others classified as “rare earth elements,” as posing the greatest supply risk for the US manufacturing sector.

The US relies entirely on imports for seventeen mineral commodities, fourteen of which are identified as critical minerals. Another fourteen critical mineral commodities had a net import reliance greater than 50 percent of apparent consumption.

Due to reduced industrial consumption as a result of COVID-19, net import reliance for many commodities was lower than in previous years. The largest number of nonfuel mineral commodities with a net import reliance of greater than 50 percent were supplied to the United States from China.

The $82.3 billion worth of nonfuel minerals produced by US mines in 2020 is for all nonfuel mineral commodity production, including industrial minerals and natural aggregates as well as ferrous and nonferrous metals.

The estimated value of US production of industrial minerals in 2020 was $54.6 billion, about 4 percent less than that of 2019. Of this total, the value of industrial minerals production was dominated by crushed stone and construction sand and gravel (construction aggregates) at $27 billion. Crushed stone was the leading nonfuel mineral commodity domestically produced in 2020, accounting for 22 percent of the total value of US nonfuel mineral production.

US metal mine production in 2020 was estimated to be $27.7 billion, 3 percent higher than that in 2019. The principal contributors to the total value of metal mine production in 2020 were gold (38%), copper (27%), iron ore (15%) and zinc (6%).

US production of twelve mineral commodities was valued at more than $1 billion each in 2020. These were, in decreasing order of value, crushed stone, gold, cement, construction sand and gravel, copper, iron ore, industrial sand and gravel, salt, lime, phosphate rock, zinc, and soda ash.

In 2020, twelve states each produced more than $2 billion worth of nonfuel mineral commodities. The states, ranked in descending order of production value, were Nevada, Arizona, Texas, California, Minnesota, Florida, Alaska, Utah, Missouri, Michigan, Wyoming, and Georgia.

Other findings in the report include:

• Critical Minerals—Domestic production of rare-earth mineral concentrates (valuable minerals that have been largely separated from the waste minerals) increased by 10,000 metric tons in 2020 to 38,000 metric tons, making the U.S. the largest producer of rare-earth mineral concentrates outside of China for the second consecutive year.
• COVID-19 Pandemic Impact—Commodities used by the oil and gas sector, steel industry and transportation industry were greatly affected in the second quarter of 2020. Although some recovery did occur in the later part of 2020, production for these commodities in 2020 was lower than that in 2019.
• Increased prices for precious metals, such as gold, which reached a record high price of $2,060 per troy ounce in August, contributed to the increased value of metal production.
• Recycled Materials—Domestically, $28 billion of metals and mineral products were recycled including products such as copper, gold, iron and steel scrap, and platinum-group metals to supply domestic consumption.

The USGS delivers unbiased science and information to understand mineral resource potential, production, consumption, and how minerals interact with the environment. The USGS National Minerals Information Center collects, analyzes and disseminates current information on the supply of and the demand for minerals and materials in the U.S. and about 180 other countries. This information is essential in planning for and mitigating impacts of potential disruptions to mineral commodity supply due to both natural hazards and man-made events.

The USGS report Mineral Commodity Summaries 2021 is available here.