The other day I made a post about my desire to learn more about Geology, and how I would like to further educate myself on the topic. I also mentioned there is a website you can go do to get more information on rocks/minerals that may be in your area. Given the multiple inquires I received, I decided to make another post to highlight this website.
The main website is USGS.GOV and I like to use the Mineral Resources Program on the USGS website: minerals.usgs.gov
Once there, you can go to the “Mineral Resources” -> “Online Spatial Data” -> “Interactive Map” to begin to search. If you further select in the legend “Minerals” and check the box for “Mineral Resources” and “Mine Features”, you can then find specifics on minerals and mines in the desired area.
One of the best parts is that you can get the GPS coordinates of the areas by clicking on the boxes. If you plug in the longitude and latitude, you can easily find the location (most smartphones already have this GPS feature available as well).
The website also contains mining and production facts – for example, many people think of Alaska as the biggest gold mining area in the US, but it is actually Nevada, and by a long shot. Through the first 11 months of 2017, there had been 845k ounces of gold mined in Alaska, but there had been 5.38M ounces of gold mined in Nevada during that same period. Crazy!
I wanted to share this resource for any fellow mineral hunters out there... happy hunting!
Brian