Many platinum records for USGS minerals information

By John H. DeYoung, Jr.

The USGS is recognized worldwide as an authoritative source for comprehensive and accurate statistics on minerals production, consumption, and trade. Statistical data prepared by the USGS help members of Congress and other Federal decisionmakers formulate policy about land use, regulations, trade, defense preparedness, and other issues, as well as provide necessary information to industry leaders and analysts and the general public about minerals.

The minerals information collection activity under the USGS started in 1882, when Congress authorized the Director of the USGS to collect statistics about the mining activities of the country. Prior to the establishment of the USGS, mining statistics had been delegated to the Commissioner of Mining Statistics, a position created in 1866 within the U.S. Department of the Treasury; the Commissioner reported on the status of mining in the Western States and Territories and included estimates of precious metal production. These reports, however, were discontinued during the time the United States was faced with monetary crises surrounding the gold standard.

One of the first activities of the newly established USGS was the creation of the Mining Statistics Division to collect and disseminate information about the Nation's mineral production and resources, including metals, nonmetallic minerals, and fuels. In 1899, the Director recommended the establishment of a Division of Mines and Mining. In a public law enacted by Congress in 1904, funds were appropriated for analyzing and testing the coals of the United States; this led to the formation of the USGS Technologic Branch. In 1910, Congress established the U.S. Bureau of Mines (USBM) in the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI); one of the changes instituted by the USBM Organic Act was the transfer to the USBM of the types of investigations conducted by the Technologic Branch. Although the USBM Organic Act did not specify economics or statistics as being within the province of that agency, Dr. Joseph A. Holmes, the first Director of the USBM, recognized the value of such data and set forth in his first annual report the need for statistical analysis of mineral problems and economic evaluation of the mineral industry. In 1913, the USBM Organic Act was amended to add conducting "scientific inquiries . . . with a view to . . . increasing economic development . . . in the mining, quarrying, metallurgical, and other mineral industries."

In 1925, the USGS's Division of Mineral Resources, responsible for minerals information reporting, was transferred to the Commerce Department under Secretary Herbert Hoover; it was combined with the USBM, which was transferred from DOI at the same time. The resulting organization was the Nation's principal collector of mineral statistics. The USBM was moved back to the DOI in 1934. The mineral industry data collection program was accelerated through the 1940s because of the broadening of the USBM's interest in the activities that follow mineral extraction and the increase in demand for minerals data, especially by defense and emergency preparedness agencies. In the 1970s, the responsibility for energy mineral statistics was transferred to the U.S. Department of Energy and became the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The minerals information collection activity remained with the USBM until Congress abolished the USBM with the 1996 Interior appropriations legislation and transferred the USBM's minerals information activities in Denver, CO, and Washington, DC, to the USGS to be combined with the Mineral Resources Program (MRP). The MRP conducts research and assessments and collects and disseminates information on the production, consumption, and recycling of minerals and mineral materials in order to understand the occurrence, quality, quantity, uses, and environmental characteristics of mineral resources; to understand the fundamental processes that create and modify them; to develop objective methods for assessing the Nation's mineral resources; to enhance understanding of the life cycle of minerals and mineral materials; and to predict the potential environmental impacts of mineral development.

Industry, academia, and land managers use the research findings that result from MRP projects; USGS minerals information then provides the societal perspective of the research findings by collecting, analyzing, and disseminating the mineral statistics of the United States; in addition, the USGS publishes international mineral statistics. These statistics are presented in a variety of publications, including the Mineral Commodity Summaries, which presents an annual summary of minerals information, and the comprehensive Minerals Yearbook, which documents world production, consumption, and trade of mineral commodities.

To promote domestic and international partnerships, USGS mineral commodity and country specialists meet with government, university, and industry representatives both in the United States and worldwide. The USGS also works with State agencies to collect minerals information at the State level. Domestic mineral data are collected through the voluntary cooperation of the mineral industry; this special partnership with mineral producers and consumers has enabled the production of high-quality statistics and represents a substantial in-kind contribution to the Government by industry.

Recently, USGS minerals information has been used by researchers of fuel-cell cars to determine the availability of platinum-group metals and nickel; by policymakers to examine the world supply of and demand for mineral commodities for concrete production, which uses large quantities of waste products and fuels in its production; and by the Mine Safety and Health Administration and rescue worker to locate specialized equipment needed to extricate nine coal miners trapped in Pennsylvania.