"Western North America produces more metal and mineral products today than any other region of similar size in the world. Beginning with the fortyniner’s discovery of gold, there has been one surge of mining activity after another. Silver in the Civil War era, copper at the turn of the century, potash, tungsten, phosphate, uranium, beryllium, to name but a few, have gained importance in turn as demand for metal and mineral products increased and new advances in technology were made.
When contemplating the present mineral production of the western United States, it is difficult to imagine how undeveloped much of the region must have appeared to the early explorers. The natives had in their possession only a few trinkets of gold, silver, and copper, and seemed to have little interest in, or knowledge of, minerals. The discovery of placer gold at Sutter’s Mill at Coloma, California, in January of 1848 was the first of many events that revealed the importance of the rich mineral resources of the West. The series of major new mineral discoveries since the California gold rush seems paced almost as if the region were some sort of gigantic mineral warehouse stocked with new commodities for use as they become needed.
Long gone are the days when mineral exploration consisted of probing outcrops of bold gold and silver veins. The list of minerals required by industry today includes a majority of elements on the chemist’s periodic chart, and the variety of ore deposits in which they occur is so great that no one individual could possibly be competent to prospect for them all. No government specialist, academic authority, or corporate expert is able to recognize the surface expression of all ore types under all conditions.
The era of the legendary mining engineer, who could go anywhere in the world and briskly size up the ore potential of any kind of mineral property, passed during World War I. The method of the mining engineer was to examine and sample the partially developed ore deposits found by early gold and silver prospectors, to determine if other metals might be present, low grade ores might be profitably mined by mechanized methods and treated by one of the efficient new metallurgical processes, or the property incorporated into a complex of mines, all shipping to a large, efficient, centralized smelter.
The modern explorationist goes back into areas investigated by the early prospectors and mining engineers, using new concepts of ore localization and techniques of search for mineral deposits that would have been of no interest to his predecessors. In the early years of mining, there was no market for most of the metals mined today. Transportation was inadequate, mechanized equipment and technology for development and treatment of the ores were lacking, and major capital was not available for investment in large mine developments and surface plants.
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Society unquestionably derives major benefits from mineral production. To emphasize one commodity, the present major mining activity in the West centers upon the copper mines of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and Montana. Without these mines, copper could not be produced in large quantities and at low cost, allowing its general use in mass production of electrical power, transportation, and other conveniences enjoyed by everyone today. Similar benefits could be cited in the case of other minerals such as lead, zinc, silver, gold, iron, coal, tungsten, and uranium. A healthy mining industry is important to the economy of the United States. The future need for minerals cannot be expected to diminish unless there is a major turn downward in the standard of living presently enjoyed in the United States."
(America is one of the newest resource rich countries in the world. Where other countries have perhaps gone through those cycles, there is a lot being uncovered in America. Or if the products are relatively new, like oil, geo politics of the world changes when new countries come up on desired resources map.)
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