Table 2 

 VALUE OF MINERAL PRODUCTION FROM OCEANS BORDERING THE UNITED STATES 



1960-67 

 (millions of dollars) 



Commodity 



1960 1961 1962 1963 1964 1965 1966 1967 



From sea water: 



Magnesium metal and com- 

 pounds, salt, and bromine 



From ocean subfloors: 



Petroleum, natural gas, and 

 sulphur 



From beaches and in-shore 



sea floors: 



Sand and gravel, zircon, 

 feldspar, cement rock, 

 and limestone 



Total 



$ 69.0 $ 73.0 $ 89.1 $ 84.6 $ 94.5 $102.6 $117.0 $145.4 



423.6 496.6 620.7 730.8 820.3 933.3 1,177.7 1,404.8 



46.8 46.2 44.3 42.5 43.6 51.4 51.6 55.9 

 539.4 615.8 754.1 857.9 958.4 1,087.3 1,346.3 1,606.1 



Source: Bureau of Mines. 



the Geological Survey to form the approximate 

 boundary of continental-type rocks and therefore 

 the geologic boundary of the continental block. 

 The U.S. continental shelves and slopes include 

 about 1 .3 million square miles, or an area about 35 

 per cent as large as the land area. 



The resource potential of the shelves and 

 perhaps the slopes should be roughly comparable 

 to that of the equivalent land area. Around the 

 entire U.S. coastline, a belt the width and area of 

 the Continental Shelf landward of the shoreline 

 has produced about $160 billion of hard minerals 

 and $75 billion of oil and gas in 1966 dollars. " 

 And since mineral production is still growing in 

 the United States so it is not possible to predict 

 the ultimate value of minerals from this onshore 

 belt. The production to be expected from offshore 

 surely will be less than from an equivalent area on 

 land because of the much greater difficulty and 

 expense required to find and exploit the resources. 

 Nevertheless, the offshore plainly offers good 

 opportunities for increased production. 



Bureau of Mines. 



Marine mineral resources can be divided into 

 four, or possibly six, main types, based on the 

 specific environment in which they occur. The 

 basic types are: 



-Chemical constituents of sea water; 



—Submerged placer deposits and other surficial 

 deposits (sands and gravels) that occur as patches 

 of unconsolidated material on and immediately 

 beneath the continental shelf (although not of 

 placer origin, oyster shell and lime mud may be 

 included in this group); 



—Deposits locked in the substrate rocks of the 

 continental shelves and slopes; 



—Deposits on the abyssal plains of the deep ocean 

 basins. 



—A fifth potential type, analogous to the third 

 type, is that which may occur in the substrate of 

 the deep ocean basins. 



—A sixth potential type embraces metal-rich hot 

 brines and mud such as occur in the Red Sea and 

 the Atlantic Deep. 



VIM 00 



