The tables in this data release provide measures of quality for each of 304,643 records in the Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) database, located at https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/ describing mineral resources worldwide but focusing on those located in the United States. One table provides the measures of quality, the other provides the overall record scores that may be used to sort records by overall quality. MRDS is distributed from USGS in several different formats for the convenience of a variety of different users. For example a flattened version of the database is available in which the one-to-many relationships in MRDS are suppressed by combining them into a single field, resulting in a subset of the data that can be viewed, albeit confusingly, in a spreadsheet. The underlying database is relational with about 35 linked tables. That was the source used in this analysis. The measures of quality were obtained from an analysis of the fully relational form of MRDS, in which each record of MRDS is represented by many rows of a variety of tables in the database. The tables of the fully relational form of MRDS are described in detail at https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/full/about.php. MRDS records describe individual mineral resources. This analysis is intended to separate records that describe those resources well and are trustworthy from those that lack fundamental information or cannot be verified easily. The results of the analysis assign to each MRDS record a grade from A to E, where A records are judged the most informative and reliable and E records the least informative and reliable. Code used to carry out the analysis is included to help users understand the procedure used.

The Midcontinent Rift System (MRS) of North America is one of the world’s largest continental rifts and has an age of 1.1 Ga (giga-annum). The MRS hosts a diverse suite of magmatic and hydrothermal mineral deposits in the Lake Superior region where rift rocks are exposed at or near the surface. As part of the construction of a database summarizing information on mineral deposits in the MRS, data from regional mineral deposits were downloaded from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS), the USGS Mineral Deposit Database (USMIN), and the Ontario Ministry of Energy, Northern Development and Mines Mineral Deposit Inventory (MDI). Deposits related to MRS rocks or mineralizing events were identified and compiled into a database to develop a space/time classification for MRS-related mineral deposits.

Mineral resource occurrence data covering the world, most thoroughly within the U.S. This database contains the records previously provided in the Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS) of USGS and the Mineral Availability System/Mineral Industry Locator System (MAS/MILS) originated in the U.S. Bureau of Mines, which is now part of USGS. The MRDS is a large and complex relational database developed over several decades by hundreds of researchers and reporters. While database records describe mineral resources worldwide, the compilation of information was intended to cover the United States completely, and its coverage of resources in other countries is incomplete. The content of MRDS records was drawn from reports previously published or made available to USGS researchers. Some of those original source materials are no longer available. The information contained in MRDS was intended to reflect the reports used as sources and is current only as of the date of those source reports. Consequently MRDS does not reflect up-to-date changes to the operating status of mines, ownership, land status, production figures and estimates of reserves and resources, or the nature, size, and extent of workings. Information on the geological characteristics of the mineral resource are likely to remain correct, but aspects involving human activity are likely to be out of date.

From the site: "MRDS is a collection of reports describing metallic and nonmetallic mineral resources throughout the world. Included are deposit name, location, commodity, deposit description, geologic characteristics, production, reserves, resources, and references. It subsumes the original MRDS and MAS/MILS.

MRDS is large and complex. This service provides a subset of the database comprised of those data fields deemed most useful and which most frequently contain some information, but full reports of most records are available as well."

The point and polygon layers within this geodatabase represent locations of mineral occurrences, mines, mining and mineral districts and sites of active mineral exploration within or near the Department of the Interior (DOI) Sagebrush Focal Areas in Montana, Wyoming and Utah, central Idaho, and the Oregon-Nevada-Idaho border area. The data were compiled by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Mineral Deposit Database project (USMIN) to provide mineral resource information for use in the USGS Sagebrush Mineral Resource Assessment (SaMiRA). This assessment was conducted for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and evaluated the mineral resource potential of approximately 10 million acres of Federal lands identified as areas of high-quality sagebrush habitat. The spatial extent of the USMIN mineral resource data includes BLM lands proposed for withdrawal from mineral entry as well as a 25 km buffer beyond the Public Land Survey System (PLSS) townships containing these areas. This extent allowed for a thorough examination of the data and assured that any significant mineral occurrence, mine, or exploration area within or adjacent to BLM’s proposed withdrawal areas was considered in the mineral resource assessment. The mineral resource data were compiled as GIS layers including: 1) mine symbols shown on USGS topographic maps; 2) mine sites; 3) active mineral exploration sites; 4) mineral occurrences; 5) mining and mineral districts; and 6) production and resource data for mines and mineral deposits. A full discussion of the compilation methodology and sources used to develop the mineral resource data is available in the section 'USMIN Project Mineral-Resource Data for the USGS SaMiRA Project' in the accompanying report: Day, W.C., Hammarstrom, J.M., Zientek, M.L., and Frost, T.P., eds., 2016, Overview with methods and procedures of the U.S. Geological Survey mineral-resource assessment of the Sagebrush Focal Areas of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2016-5089-A, 211 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20165089A.

MRDS describes metallic and nonmetallic mineral resources throughout the world. Included are deposit name, location, commodity, deposit description, geologic characteristics, production, reserves, resources, and references. It includes the original MRDS and MAS/MILS data. As of 2011, USGS has ceased systematic updates to MRDS, and is working to create a new database

Website: http://mrdata.usgs.gov/mineral-resources/mrds-global.html

This product includes GIS and data tables for 684 deposits in the United States and Puerto Rico that have past or present production or resources for critical minerals. Deposits are classified by mineral system and deposit types using the Earth Mineral Resources Initiative (EMRI) framework of Hofstra and Kreiner (2020) and the focus areas defined by Dicken and others (2022).

(Link to Metadata) MRDSVT is an extract from the Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) covering the State of Vermont only. MRDS database contains the records provided in the Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS) of USGS and the Mineral Availability System/Mineral Industry Locator System (MAS/MILS) originated in the U.S. Bureau of Mines, which is now part of USGS. The MRDS is a large and complex relational database developed over several decades by hundreds of researchers and reporters. This product is a digest in which the fields chosen are those most likely to contain valid information.

Mineral resource occurrence data covering the world, most thoroughly within the U.S. This database contains the records previously provided in the Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS) of USGS and the Mineral Availability System/Mineral Industry Locator System (MAS/MILS) originated in the U.S. Bureau of Mines, which is now part of USGS. The MRDS is a large and complex relational database developed over several decades by hundreds of researchers and reporters. This product is a digest in which the fields chosen are those most likely to contain valid information.

Mine density at 10 km2 scale calculated with records from the Mineral Resources Data System (USGS 2011). Records are from pre-Hispanic conquest through 2014. USGS [U.S. Geological Survey]. 2011. Mineral Resources On-Line Spatial Data: Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS). https://mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/. Department of the Interior, Reston, Virginia, USA.

This compilation contains a list of approximately 8,600 sites across the United States, Canada, and Australia where Zn-Pb-mineralized rock is attributed to basinal brine-related mineralizing processes, specifically assigned to Mississippi Valley Type (MVT) or clastic-dominated (CD) deposit types; a second group of 147 sites, classified as “unknown”, but which may have similar genesis, is also included. These sites were selected based on interpretations of 16 published databases, including the Mineral Resources Data System (USGS, 2016) and the Alaska Resource Data File (USGS, 1996) for the United States, and comprise a significant but not necessarily complete dataset. Each site is further classified by deposit type and development status. For the limited deposits where grade and tonnage information are available, tonnage and published Cu, Zn, Pb, Ag, and Au grades are provided. References for source data are also included. References U.S. Geological Survey, 1996, Alaska Resource Da ...

Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Service Protocol: Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Application Profile: Web Browser. Link Function: information

Mineral resource occurrence data covering the world, most thoroughly within the U.S. This database contains the records previously provided in the Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS) of USGS and the Mineral Availability System/Mineral Industry Locator System(MAS/MILS) originated in the U.S. Bureau of Mines, which is now part of USGS. The MRDS is a large and complex relational database developed over several decades by hundreds of researchers and reporters. This product is a digest in which the fields chosen are those most likely to contain valid information.

Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Service Protocol: Link to the ScienceBase Item Summary page for the item described by this metadata record. Application Profile: Web Browser. Link Function: information

Mineral facilities and operations outside the United States compiled by the National Minerals Information Center of the USGS. National Minerals Information Center makes available a wide variety of commodity statistics and other mineral resource supply and production information both within the United States and internationally. These databases complement aggregate commodity statistics collected by the NMIC. 2010 USGS NMICMineral Resource Data System (MRDS) describes metallic and nonmetallic mineral resources throughout the world. Included are deposit name, location, commodity, deposit description, geologic characteristics, production, reserves, resources, and references. It includes the original MRDS and MAS/MILS data. 2011 USGS MRDS

There are more than 42,000 entries in the USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) for the State of California. Previously, the field for deposit type was sparsely populated, which made it difficult to evaluate mine sites needing environmental remediation. This has been rectified by populating the deposit type field using 100 deposit types cited in previous USGS publications, and 137 provisional deposit types described here. Other categories listed in the deposit type field include 29 types of mineral processing facilities, 6 miscellaneous categories used previously in MRDS, and 56 unclassified categories tied to primary commodity. References are provided for each deposit type, as available, including descriptive models, grade-tonnage models, and geo-environmental models. The new information on deposit type will be useful to federal, state, and local agencies concerned with prioritizing abandoned mine sites for environmental assessment.

There is a growing demand for commodities (elements, compounds, minerals) used in today's advanced technologies. Critical minerals are usually found in ore deposits that are deemed vital to economic and national security. The National Geochemical Database on Ore Deposits: Legacy data (NGDOD) contains chemistry and geologic information for nearly 30,000 historic ore and ore-related rock samples from mineral deposits and mining districts in the United States. Geochemical data sets from various mineral deposits were submitted by geologists of the "Systems Approach to Critical Minerals Inventory, Research, and Assessment" (SACM) within the U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resource Program (MRP). The data sets represent 15 mineral system types and 42 mineral deposit types.

Version 10.0 (Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico added) of these data are part of a larger U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) project to develop an updated geospatial database of mines, mineral deposits, and mineral regions in the United States. Mine and prospect-related symbols, such as those used to represent prospect pits, mines, adits, dumps, tailings, etc., hereafter referred to as “mine” symbols or features, have been digitized from the 7.5-minute (1:24,000, 1:25,000-scale; and 1:10,000, 1:20,000 and 1:30,000-scale in Puerto Rico only) and the 15-minute (1:48,000 and 1:62,500-scale; 1:63,360-scale in Alaska only) archive of the USGS Historical Topographic Map Collection (HTMC), or acquired from available databases (California and Nevada, 1:24,000-scale only). Compilation of these features is the first phase in capturing accurate locations and general information about features related to mineral resource exploration and extraction across the U.S. The compilation of 725,690 point and polygon mine symbols from approximately 106,350 maps across 50 states, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico (PR) and the District of Columbia (DC) has been completed: Alabama (AL), Alaska (AK), Arizona (AZ), Arkansas (AR), California (CA), Colorado (CO), Connecticut (CT), Delaware (DE), Florida (FL), Georgia (GA), Hawaii (HI), Idaho (ID), Illinois (IL), Indiana (IN), Iowa (IA), Kansas (KS), Kentucky (KY), Louisiana (LA), Maine (ME), Maryland (MD), Massachusetts (MA), Michigan (MI), Minnesota (MN), Mississippi (MS), Missouri (MO), Montana (MT), Nebraska (NE), Nevada (NV), New Hampshire (NH), New Jersey (NJ), New Mexico (NM), New York (NY), North Carolina (NC), North Dakota (ND), Ohio (OH), Oklahoma (OK), Oregon (OR), Pennsylvania (PA), Rhode Island (RI), South Carolina (SC), South Dakota (SD), Tennessee (TN), Texas (TX), Utah (UT), Vermont (VT), Virginia (VA), Washington (WA), West Virginia (WV), Wisconsin (WI), and Wyoming (WY). The process renders not only a more complete picture of exploration and mining in the U.S., but an approximate timeline of when these activities occurred. These data may be used for land use planning, assessing abandoned mine lands and mine-related environmental impacts, assessing the value of mineral resources from Federal, State and private lands, and mapping mineralized areas and systems for input into the land management process. These data are presented as three groups of layers based on the scale of the source maps. No reconciliation between the data groups was done.Datasets were developed by the U.S. Geological Survey Geology, Geophysics, and Geochemistry Science Center (GGGSC). Compilation work was completed by USGS National Association of Geoscience Teachers (NAGT) interns: Emma L. Boardman-Larson, Grayce M. Gibbs, William R. Gnesda, Montana E. Hauke, Jacob D. Melendez, Amanda L. Ringer, and Alex J. Schwarz; USGS student contractors: Margaret B. Hammond, Germán Schmeda, Patrick C. Scott, Tyler Reyes, Morgan Mullins, Thomas Carroll, Margaret Brantley, and Logan Barrett; and by USGS personnel Virgil S. Alfred, Damon Bickerstaff, E.G. Boyce, Madelyn E. Eysel, Stuart A. Giles, Autumn L. Helfrich, Alan A. Hurlbert, Cheryl L. Novakovich, Sophia J. Pinter, and Andrew F. Smith.USMIN project website: https://www.usgs.gov/USMIN

Map displaying Maine Mineral Resources Data that was produced by the Maine Geological Survey in 2009. It was derived from the U.S. Geological Survey's Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS). MRDS is a worldwide database of mineral site records with related geologic, commodity, and deposit information. The USGS data were combined with records from the Maine Geological Survey's Maine Metallic Mineral Deposits Database and Maine Mineral Localities Index.

Maine Mineral Resources Data was produced by the Maine Geological Survey in 2009. It was derived from the U.S. Geological Survey's Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS). MRDS is a worldwide database of mineral site records with related geologic, commodity, and deposit information. The USGS data were combined with records from the Maine Geological Survey's "Maine Metallic Mineral Deposits Database" and "Maine Mineral Localities Index."