domestic demand through 2040. For 
some minerals that the United States 
imports, availability of supplies will be 
influenced by the politics and the 
stability of the government of the 
producing country as well as the 
physical availability of the resource. 
e Demands for minerals materials and 
construction are likely to follow trends 
in population growth and gross national 
product, but with agricultural use 
dependent on technology and demands 
for agricultural commodities. 
e The domestic supply of minerals 
materials used in construction 
historically has been in equilibrium 
with demand. No national quantitative 
shortage 1s anticipated, but local 
shortfalls may occur. 
Trends in Minerals Use and 
Projected Demands 
The United States is among the world’s 
leaders in the consumption of many 
important minerals. With only 5.8 
percent of the world’s population, 
America consumes more than 30 
percent of the natural gas, 26 percent of 
the petroleum, 27 percent of the silver, 
and more than 21 percent of the lead 
and copper. 
The historical trends in U.S. 
consumption vary among the three 
classes of minerals. 
Total consumption of energy in the 
United States has increased steadily 
since World War II, but the pattern 
varies among petroleum, natural gas, 
and coal. Coal consumption has 
increased sharply in recent years while 
consumption of the other two energy 
minerals has declined. 
Demands for metallic and industrial 
minerals and mineral materials have 
40 
varied from metal to metal. In general. 
consumption of metallic minerals rises 
and falls in consonance with domestic 
and worldwide economic prosperity 
and recessions, and periods of relative 
peace and military conflict. This 
happens because metals contribute 
many of the primary materials for 
consumer products like cars and homes 
and for military weapons systems. 
Demands for industrial minerals and 
mineral materials have been dependent 
on the fortunes of specific industries 
such as steel, agriculture, and 
construction. Thus, trends in 
consumption have tended to be 
cyclical. 
Although the United States relies on 
significant importation of some 
minerals, especially petroleum, the 
Nation gets most of its coal and many 
other individual minerals from 
domestic sources. 
Given the anticipated growth in the 
U.S. economy and population, it is 
reasonable to expect that demand for 
GET 
energy minerals will grow in the future 
(fig. 37). Exactly how much it will 
increase 1s uncertain—rising prices for 
energy would stimulate conservation 
and the development of alternative 
energy sources. 
As with energy minerals, the general 
demand for metallic minerals has been 
linked to population growth, gross 
national product, and disposable 
income. The vigor of the domestic 
durable-goods manufacturing sector 
and communications and defense 
industries has a bearing on the 
domestic demand for metallic minerals. 
The use of gold and silver largely will 
be influenced by the world supply and 
price of these precious metals. 
Although we expect the demand for 
metallic minerals to rise, it 1s 
impossible to anticipate technologies 
that may have a profound influence on 
consumption of individual minerals. 
The chemical and industrial sector is 
the biggest user of lime, the commodity 
produced from limestone, and we 
expect the demand for this mineral to 
Figure 37—Growing demands for energy minerals should stimulate domestic production. 
