Over half of the Nation's reserves of coal and nuclear materials, 

 nearly all the oil shale deposits, and many of the prime petroleum 

 prospecting sites are located on Federal forest and range lands in the 

 western United States. 



mining (facilities, waste dumps, land subsidence, and 

 road or rail access) can also be substantial. Where 

 reclamation does not take place, the effects of mining 

 can be long lasting. 



The list of minerals that occur beneath forest and 

 range lands in the United States is very long. In terms 

 of their impact on surface uses, three categories of 

 minerals should be recognized: fuels (oil and gas, 

 coal, uranium, and geothermal resources); metals 

 (iron, aluminum, copper and lead); and non-metals 

 (barite, phosphate, potash, sand, gravel, clay, rock 

 and gypsum). 



Location — Of present and prospective commercial 

 mineral sources of fuel — coal, shale, crude oil, natu- 

 ral gas, uranium, and geothermal — coal is the most 

 abundant and widespread. Coal underlies about 13 

 percent of the Nation and is found in 37 States. Since 

 much of it can be mined only by surface methods, 

 coal mining has the potential for serious impacts on 

 other forest and range resources. On the other hand, 

 oil, natural gas, and geothermal resources are asso- 

 ciated with relatively low-level impacts on other re- 

 sources. Oil shale mining could become important in 

 terms of effects on renewable resources; however, at 

 present, problems in extraction have limited its use. 



National Forest System lands and Bureau of Land 

 Management lands contain many of the Nation's 

 energy-related minerals. These include about 50 per- 

 cent of the coal reserves, 60 percent of the nuclear 

 minerals, nearly all of the oil shale deposits, and large 

 quantities of materials such as vermiculite and perlite, 

 important in the manufacture of insulating materials 

 used in the conservation of energy (fig. 2.4). 



Most metallic minerals occur in localized areas, 

 primarily in the western United States. Many of these 

 metallic minerals underlie lands managed by the 

 Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management 

 (fig. 2.5). Probably half of the Nation's copper, lead, 

 zinc, nickel, and molybdenum are contained in these 

 lands, concentrated mostly in the Northern Rocky 

 Mountain and Pacific regions. The lead belt in Mis- 

 souri, which ranks first nationally in lead production, 

 falls largely on National Forest lands. Only copper, 

 aluminum, iron, and titanium are mined mostly by 

 surface methods, although such other significant 

 metals as uranium and thorium are mined in a variety 

 of ways depending on local situations. 



Nonmetallic minerals also generally occur in local- 

 ized areas, except for construction materials such as 

 sand, gravel, clay, rock, and gypsum. There are vast 

 phosphate deposits in the Rocky Mountain region, 

 and large phosphate and potash deposits in the 

 South. 



Construction materials are found both on Federal 

 and non-Federal lands, but only a small proportion is 

 produced on Federal lands. Usually these materials 

 can be obtained at lowest costs from areas close to 

 where they are needed. Unlike most metals and other 

 nonmetallics, the low unit-value construction mate- 

 rials are most often mined from open pits and quar- 

 ries. They account for a large portion of the surface 

 area disturbed by mining activities, but this portion is 

 widely dispersed for the most part. 



Trends in production — The constant dollar value 

 of United States mineral production has grown from 

 SI 1 bilUon in 1950 to $33.1 bilhon in 1975, a threefold 

 increase (table 2.10). 



Fuel minerals are by far the most important seg- 

 ment of United States mineral production in terms of 

 value, accounting for 78 percent of the total in 1975. 

 Nonmetals accounted for 14 percent of the total value 

 of production in 1975, and metals made up 8 percent. 



United States production and demand for nearly 

 all minerals has been rising. These past trends are 

 likely to continue as shown by projections for some 

 major minerals in table 2.11. Primary production of 

 coal is projected to nearly triple by 2000, rising from 

 about 0.6 billion to 1.7 billion short tons. 



Minable coal reserves are about equal east and 



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