United States

Minerals

With major producing fields in Alaska, California, the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana, and Oklahoma, the United States is one of the world’s leading producers of refined petroleum and has important reserves of natural gas. Beginning in the 1990s, horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) of shale gas also grew in importance in states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The United States is also among the world’s coal exporters. Recoverable coal deposits are concentrated largely in the Appalachian Mountains and in Wyoming. Nearly half the bituminous coal is mined in West Virginia and Kentucky, while Pennsylvania produces the country’s only anthracite. Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio also produce coal.

Iron ore is mined predominantly in Minnesota and Michigan. The United States also has important reserves of copper, magnesium, lead, and zinc. Copper production is concentrated in the mountainous western states of Arizona, Utah, Montana, Nevada, and New Mexico. Zinc is mined in Tennessee, Missouri, Idaho, and New York. Lead mining is concentrated in Missouri. Other metals mined in the United States are gold, silver, molybdenum, manganese, tungsten, bauxite, uranium, vanadium, and nickel. Important nonmetallic minerals produced are phosphates, potash, sulfur, stone, and clays.