Historical Statistics for Mineral and Material Commodities in the United States |
| By Thomas Kelly, David Buckingham, Carl DiFrancesco, Kenneth Porter, Thomas Goonan, John Sznopek, Cyrus Berry, and Melissa Crane |
Version 8.7
Online Only
| General Notes | Methodology | Commodity Data and Notes | Reference |
This digital database, a work in progress, by the U. S. Geological Survey (USGS), is an on-line compilation of historical U.S. statistics on mineral and material commodities. Each commodity is added to the database upon its completion. When finished, the database will contain data on mineral production, imports, exports, stocks; reported and apparent consumption; and unit value (the value in dollars of a metric ton of apparent consumption) for approximately 90 mineral commodities. World production data are included when available. For material commodities, only apparent consumption is reported, with the exception of wood products for which U.S. production, imports, and exports are reported for the years 1965–2000. For some of the commodities, data are reported as far back as 1900. Each commodity file is accompanied by a Microsoft® Word1 document embedded in the worksheet as an icon that describes units of measure, defines terms, and lists USGS contacts for additional information.
Once completed, the entire database will be updated periodically. Plans include publication of a CD-ROM containing the database of tables in Microsoft® Access1, also periodically updated.
One of the responsibilities of the USGS is to collect, analyze, and disseminate minerals information on most nonfuel mineral commodities. These data include: U.S. production, imports, exports, consumption, recycling, stocks, shipments, and prices.
The 47th Congress instituted the collection and public distribution of these types of data by the U.S. Government in an appropriations act of August 7, 1882 (22 Stat. 329), which placed the collection of mineral statistics on an annual basis (Mlynarski, 1998). The Federal agencies responsible for the collection of the data have changed through time. For the years 1882-1924, the USGS collected and published this data; the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) performed these tasks from 1925-95; and in 1996, the responsibilities once again passed to the USGS (following the closure of the USBM). The information is collected by the USGS on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual, and annual basis from more than 18,000 minerals-related producer and consumer establishments that cooperate with the USGS. These companies voluntarily complete about 40,000 canvass forms that survey production, consumption, recycling, stocks, shipments, and other vital information (Mlynarski, 1998). Data are also gathered from site visits, memberships on domestic and international minerals related committees, and coordination with other government organizations and trade associations.
Among the many users of the data are the following:
The USGS makes this information available through published products, including monthly, quarterly, and annual Mineral Industry Surveys, the annual Minerals Yearbook (MYB), the annual Mineral Commodity Summaries (MCS), and special commodity studies, including the history of metal prices and materials flow studies. The USGS has a minerals information page on the World Wide Web detailing publications, information products, and contacts for minerals information (http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/). The page also provides links to other Internet sites.
The data published in the following Microsoft® Excel1 worksheets were compiled from publications of the USGS and USBM. The primary references for these data are the annual publications MYB and its predecessor, Mineral Resources of the United States (MR). Other publications of the USGS and USBM were used as references, when needed, to simplify the collection of data or gather a datum, such as apparent consumption or price, when it was available in this alternative source and not the MYB or MR. These references are as follows: Statistical Compendium (SC), Metal Prices in the United States Through 1991 (MP91), Metal Prices in the United States Through 1998 (MP98), MCS and its predecessor Commodity Data Summaries (CDS), Minerals Facts and Problems (MFP), and various USBM Information Circulars. USGS mineral commodity specialists reviewed the compiled data and made minor revisions based on errors in data compilation and revisions of past data that have yet to be published.
The data in these worksheets are published in metric tons (t), and dollars per metric ton ($/t) to allow for data comparison between commodities through time. During the 20th century, different units were used to quantify individual mineral commodities; units varied between commodities and even within a commodity through time. Cement, for example, was originally reported in barrels, the common industry unit in 1900. Cement went through a reporting period from 1972 to 1990 being reported in short tons, and was switched to metric tons in 1991. In the mid-1980's to early 1990's, most commodities switched to metric units. To this day, however, some commodities are reported in units that represent the physical state of the commodity (million cubic meters for helium, a gas) or an industry market unit (carats for diamonds).
Data were recorded, as published (after the necessary conversions), for production, shipments, imports, exports, reported and or apparent consumption, and stocks. Blank cells indicate that data were not available or were withheld for proprietary reasons. The worksheet notes accompanying each table indicate whether data was withheld or not available.
Apparent consumption is a derived datum; its value is dependent on other fields. The general formula for apparent consumption is:
When apparent consumption was not published in MYB, SC, or MCS, it was calculated by this formula or a variation of it. In some instances, apparent consumption was not published, but reported consumption (from industry sources) was recorded in MYB or MCS. If apparent consumption is not available, reported consumption may be used as a surrogate for apparent consumption. When apparent consumption could not be calculated because of withheld data or unavailable data, it was estimated by interpolation for a missing point or by linear regression for a series of points. Fortunately, most of these interpolations and linear regressions occurred in portions of the apparent consumption curves that are relatively smooth, thereby increasing the confidence placed in the estimation.
Unit value is a measure of the value of a physical unit of apparent consumption (in this case, a metric ton) in dollars. For a commodity whose apparent consumption is measured in a single form, such as copper metal, a price series may be used to estimate the unit value. For many commodities, apparent consumption measures more than one form of the commodity. The commodity chromium, for example, includes chromium metal, chromium ferroalloys and chromite ore in its measurement of apparent consumption. To estimate chromium unit value, weight averaging the price of each form by the amount that each form contributes to apparent consumption (measured as the amount imported) results in an estimate of unit value. For many commodities, a price series was not available, but total value of imports, exports, and production were reported. A graphical analysis of these value series was used to derive the unit value. The notes that accompany each mineral commodity worksheet discuss the source of apparent consumption and unit value data, and the assumptions made in estimating these data when they were not available from the references. Unit values in these tables are converted to 1998 constant dollars using the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, a widely used measure of overall inflation in the United States. Constant dollars remove the effect of inflation on the unit value.
Icons embedded in the commodity worksheets direct the reader to notes that discuss sources of apparent consumption and unit value data (in addition to the information mentioned previously in the first paragraph of this document). Click on the following list of commodities to view the data.
Mlynarski, K.W., 1998, Survey methods for nonfuel minerals: U.S. Geological Survey Minerals Yearbook 1998, v.1, p. 1.1-1.4.
1. Any use of trade, product, or firm names in this publication is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.
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U.S. Department of the Interior U.S. Geological Survey Minerals Information 988 National Center Reston, VA 20192 USA URL: http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/of01-006/index.html Maintained by: jgambogi@usgs.gov Last modification: 27-Aug-2004@15:49 Privacy Statement || Disclaimer || FOIA || Accessibility |  |