These data accompany the 2018 manuscript published in PLOS One titled "Mapping the yearly extent of surface coal mining in Central Appalachia using Landsat and Google Earth Engine". In this manuscript, researchers used the Google Earth Engine platform and freely-accessible Landsat imagery to create a yearly dataset (1985 through 2015) of surface coal mining in the Appalachian region of the United States of America. This specific dataset is a GeoTIFF file of the processing mask. This mask omits land uses/covers including urban areas, roads, and rivers from the mine delineation analysis. The mask is based off various datasets from 2015.

Forecast: Self-Employed People in Coal and Lignite Mining Sector in the US 2022 - 2026 Discover more data with ReportLinker!

This table contains 352 series, with data for years 1994 - 2008 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years), and was last released on 2011-09-28. This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (1 items: Canada ...) North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) (32 items: Mining (except oil and gas); Coal mining; Coal mining; Metal ore mining ...) Components (11 items: Total establishments; Production workers' hours paid; Production workers' wages; Production workers ...).

Worldwide coal consumption and international coal trade are projected to increase in the next several decades (Energy Information Administration, 2007). A search of existing literature indicates that in the Western Hemisphere, coal resources are known to occur in about 30 countries. The need exists to be able to depict these areas in a digital format for use in Geographic Information System (GIS) applications at small scales (large areas) and in visual presentations.

Existing surficial geology GIS layers of the appropriate geologic age have been used as an approximation to depict the extent of coal-bearing areas in North, Central, and South America, as well as Greenland. Global surficial geology GIS data were created by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) for use in world petroleum assessments (Hearn and others, 2003). These USGS publications served as the major sources for the selection and creation of polygons to represent coal-bearing areas. Additional publications and maps by various countries and agencies were also used as sources of coal locations. GIS geologic polygons were truncated where literature or hardcopy maps did not indicate the presence of coal.

The depicted areas are not adequate for use in coal resource calculations, as they were not adjusted for geologic structure and do not include coal at depth. Additionally, some coal areas in Central America could not be represented by the mapped surficial geology and are shown only as points based on descriptions or depictions from scientific publications or available maps. The provided GIS files are intended to serve as a backdrop for display of coal information. Three attributes of the coal that are represented by the polygons or points include geologic age (or range of ages), published rank (or range of ranks), and information source (published sources for age, rank, or physical location, or GIS geology base).

This data set consists of records for over 900 mineral facilities in Latin America and Canada. The mineral facilities include mines, plants, smelters, or refineries of aluminum, cement, coal, copper, diamond, gold, iron and steel, nickel, platinum-group metals, salt, and silver, among others. Records include attributes such as commodity, country, location, company name, facility type and capacity if applicable, and generalized coordinates. The data were compiled from multiple sources, including the 2003 and 2004 USGS Minerals Yearbooks (Latin America and Candada volume), data to be published in the 2005 Minerals Yearbook Latin America and Canada Volume, minerals statistics and information from the USGS minerals information Web site http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/ , and data collected by USGS minerals information country specialists. Data reflect the most recent published table of industry structure for each country. Other sources include statistical publications of individual countries, annual reports and press releases of operating companies,and trade journals. Due to the sensitivity of some energy commodity data, the quality of these data should be evaluated on a country-by-country basis. Additional information and explanation is available from the country specialists.

The Global Geochemical Database for Critical Metals in Black Shales (CMIBS) contains new geochemical data compilations for fine-grained sedimentary rocks in which each geologic material sample has one “best value” determination for each analyzed species, greatly improving speed and efficiency of use (Granitto and others, 2013). The CMIBS was created and designed to compile and integrate geochemical data from seven continents in order to facilitate petrologic studies, mineral resource assessments and mineral exploration, definition of geochemical baseline values and statistics, environmental impact assessments, paleobiological studies and paleoenvironmental trends through Earth history. and studies in human health and environmental geochemistry. The primary goal was to compile geochemical data for stratigraphic rock sequences containing dominantly fine-grained clastic rocks with appreciable organic carbon (>0.5 weight percent), collectively termed and referred to herein as “black shale facies samples” but comprised of all fine-grained clastic rocks such as argillite, mudstone, claystone, and their low-medium grade metamorphic equivalents. In some cases, minor other lithologies within the stratigraphic sequences such as limestone,coal,or tuff layers are also included. The particular focus of the database was on black shale facies samples in regions and stratigraphic sequences known to contain high concentrations of “critical metals” such as Ni, Mo, PGE, Se, U, and V. Therefore, this relational database serves as a data archive in support of present and future geologic and geochemical studies of critical metals in black shale facies samples, although a wide range of inorganic elements other than the above mentioned “critical metals” are included. The database contains data tables in two different formats describing historical and new quantitative and qualitative geochemical analyses. The analytical results were determined by more than 130 laboratory and field analytical methods on 89,877 samples, of which 89,443 are rock, 170 are geologic material, 121 are sediment, 92 are soil and 2 are organic samples. The non-rock samples were included in the database because they were usually related to the black shale facies samples below them stratigraphically (in drill core, for example). Many of the samples are organic rich to the point that they are actually coal samples. More than 75 percent of the samples were collected by U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) personnel and analyzed in USGS laboratories or, under contracts, in commercial analytical laboratories. These data represent analyses of samples collected as part of various USGS programs and projects from 1961 through 2014. The CMIBS includes historical geochemical data originally archived in the USGS Rock Analysis Storage System (RASS) database, used from the mid-1960s through the late 1980s and the USGS PLUTO database used from the mid-1970s through the mid-1990s. All of these data are currently maintained in the USGS National Geochemical Database (NGDB). Retrievals from the NGDB were used to generate more than 3/4 of the CMIBS data set. Also included in the CMIBS are data from 11,084 samples of the Canadian Mining Industry Research Organization (CAMIRO) Project 08E04: Geochemistry of Shales as Vectors to Ore Deposits. This global black shale facies dataset was shared with the USGS for inclusion in the CMIBS. Bibliographic research for geochemical data of black shale facies yielded data from 11,697 additional samples published in numerous professional journals, theses and databases. The data of the CMIBS were checked for accuracy regarding sample location, sample media type, and analytical methods used.