Virtually all of the iron ore mined in the world is used in steel making. In the United States, the largest producers are concentrated in a few states that account for the country's national output of usable iron ore.
This category includes establishments primarily engaged in mining, milling, or otherwise preparing copper ores. This industry also includes establishments primarily engaged in the recovery of copper concentrates by precipitation and leaching of copper ore.
This category covers establishments primarily engaged in mining, milling, or other wise preparing lead ores, zinc ores, or lead-zinc ores.
This category covers establishments primarily engaged in mining gold ores from lode deposits or in the recovery of gold from placer deposits by any method. In addition to ore dressing methods, such as crushing, grinding, gravity concentration, and froth flotation, this industry includes amalgamation, cyanidation, and the production of bullion at the mine, mill, or dredge site.
This category covers establishments primarily engaged in mining, milling, or otherwise preparing silver ores, including the production of bullion at the mine or mill site.
This category covers establishments primarily engaged in mining, milling, or otherwise preparing ferroalloy ores, except vanadium. The mining of manganiferous ores valued chiefly for their iron content is classified in SIC 1011: Iron Ores.
This classification covers establishments primarily engaged in performing metal mining services for others on a contract or fee basis, such as the removal of overburden, strip mining for metallic ores, prospect and test drilling, and mine exploration and development. Establishments that have complete responsibility for operating mines for others on a contract or fee basis are classified according to the product mined rather than as metal mining services.
This category covers establishments primarily engaged in mining, milling, or otherwise preparing uranium, radium, or vanadium ores.
This category covers establishments that are primarily engaged in mining, milling, and preparing miscellaneous metal ores. Production of metallic mercury by furnacing or retorting at the mine site is also included.
This classification covers establishments primarily engaged in producing bituminous coal or lignite at surface mines or in developing bituminous coal or lignite surface mines. This industry includes auger mining, strip mining, culm bank mining, and other surface mining, by owners or lessees or by establishments that have complete responsibility for operating bituminous coal and lignite surface mines for others on a contract or fee basis.
In 2001 there were 719 underground coal mines in the United States, which produced 380.6 million metric short tons. Of total U.S.
This category covers establishments primarily engaged in producing anthracite or in developing anthracite mines. All establishments in the United States that are classified in this industry are located in Pennsylvania.
This category covers establishments primarily engaged in performing coal mining services for others on a contract or fee basis. Establishments that have complete responsibility for operating mines for others on a contract or fee basis are classified according to the product mined, rather than as mining services.
The crude petroleum and natural gas industry was highly volatile during the late 1990s, which has directly impacted the industry in the early 2000s. Between 1998 and 2001, natural gas prices doubled—for a brief time, quintupled—and then returned to 1998 levels.
This category includes establishments primarily engaged in the production of liquid hydrocarbons from oil and gas field gases.
The category includes establishments primarily engaged in drilling wells for oil and gas field operations for others on a contract or fee basis. This industry includes contractors that specialize in spudding in, drilling in, redrilling, and directional drilling.
This category covers establishments engaged primarily in performing geophysical, geological, and other exploration services for oil and gas on a contract or fee basis.
This industry includes establishments primarily engaged in performing oil and gas field services, not elsewhere classified, for others on a contract or fee basis. Services included are excavating slush pits and cellars; grading and building of foundations at well locations; well surveying; running, cutting, and pulling casings, tubes, and rods; cementing wells; shooting wells, perforating well casings; chemically treating wells; and cleaning out, bailing and swabbing wells.
In 2003, 132 U.S. companies produced 1.35 million tons of dimension stone for use in building, monuments, and curbing with a total value of $236 million.
Crushed limestone production is the largest of three related industries that extract and process nonfuel, non-metallic minerals. Primarily employed as aggregate, which refers to a wide number of sand, gravel, and stone mixtures, crushed stone is an essential component of the U.S.
This classification covers establishments primarily engaged in mining or quarrying crushed and broken granite, including related rocks, such as gneiss, syenite, and diorite.
This classification covers establishments primarily engaged in mining or quarrying crushed and broken stone, not elsewhere classified. Types of stone processed by this industry include basalt, diabase, dolomitic marble, gabbro, marble, mica schist, onyx marble, quartzite, sandstone, and volcanic rock.
This category covers establishments primarily engaged in operating sand and gravel pits and dredges and in washing, screening, or otherwise preparing sand and gravel for construction uses.
This category covers establishments primarily engaged in operating sand pits and dredges, and in washing, screening, and otherwise preparing sand for uses other than construction, such as glass making, molding, and abrasives.
In the early 2000s, a total of 28 U.S. firms operating 124 mines produced 9.13 million metric tons of kaolin and ball clay.
This category covers establishments primarily engaged in mining, milling, or otherwise preparing clay, ceramic, or refractory (heat-resistant) minerals, not elsewhere classified. Establishments producing clay in conjunction with the manufacture of refractory or structural clay and pottery products are classified in manufacturing in the major group for stone, clay, glass, and concrete products.
In 2003 the majority of potash production took place in New Mexico, where three mines were in operation. Michigan and Utah also had potash production facilities.
This category covers establishments primarily engaged in mining, milling, drying, calcining, sintering (heating without melting), or otherwise preparing phosphate rock, including apatite.
Salt represents nearly half of all industry chemical and fertilizer mineral industry shipments. Consequently, the performance of the salt industry tends to reflect over-all industry conditions.
In addition to performing contracted strip mining and overburden removal, industry firms perform general non-testing drilling and blasting, miscellaneous mining services, and prospect and test drilling. Industry firms also offer geophysical exploration services, sink mine shafts, and drain and pump mines—all on a contract basis and all within the nonmetallic minerals mining industry.
Some of the most economically significant minerals mined by industry firms included garnet, gemstones, graphite, gypsum, industrial diamonds, perlite, and quartz. Other minerals produced include asbestos, asphalt, burrstone, calcite, catlinite, corundum, cryolite, diatomite, emery, fill dirt, gilsonite, greensand, Iceland spar, meerschaum, mica, millstone, oilstone, ozokerite, peat, pipestone, pozzolana, pumice, pyrophyllite, rubbing stone, scoria, scythestone, vermiculite, whetstone, wollastonite, and wurtzilite.