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Show CHAPTER SEVEN Mineral Resources OUR STANDARD of living and our national defense are heavily dependent upon the availability of fuel and nonfuel minerals. National requirements for these products are an essential factor in the development of a rational policy for mineral development on our public lands. While it is apparent that mineral development is important to regional growth and other factors, we have given primary weight to the overriding national requirements. The fuel and nonfuel mineral industries have provided an ever larger proportion of the raw materials base of the American economy since the turn of the century. In that period of time they have increased until they represent at least one-third of the total value of all raw materials used in the United States. To the total gross national product in 1966, fuel mineral production contributed $15 billion and non-fuel mineral production contributed $7.5 billion. In percentage terms mineral production is not a large part of our national income or employment. Nevertheless, the mineral industries require a much greater expenditure for capital and equipment than is needed for the manufacturing industries. In 1963 their capital expenditures amounted to 22 percent of the total for mineral and manufacturing industries even though the value added by the mineral industries was only 8 percent of the total. Our industrial dependency on the production of fuel and nonfuel minerals is more significant than the substantial monetary values they contribute. Many of the factors we take for granted in our standard of living would be impossible without reliable and economic supplies of minerals. Likewise, our survival as a leading nation depends on our mineral supplies. The close relation between minerals and our national security is too apparent to require detailed explanation. As our demands for minerals have grown, we have become more dependent on foreign sources of supply. Over one-third of our mineral supplies are imported. This reliance on foreign sources may well increase according to current indications. Experience in Peru, the Middle East, and elsewhere demonstrates that total reliance on foreign sources would be a hazardous economic and political policy. We strongly favor, therefore, an overriding national policy that encourages and supports the discovery and development of domestic sources of supply. Public land mineral policy should encourage exploration, development, and production of minerals on the public lands. Oil production on Federal land (other than the Outer Continental Shelf) in 1968 amounted to between 6 percent and 7 percent of the national total and was valued at over $570 million. This figure does not include any production from the recent discoveries in Alaska which are not on Federal lands and are said to be the largest U.S. deposits since the East Texas fields. Perhaps of even more importance is the fact that large areas of the public lands not yet drilled are deemed favorable to the occurrence of oil and gas. Over 64 million acres of Federal land were under lease for oil and gas in 1968, of which over 90 percent was in the 11 western contiguous states and Alaska. Substantial deposits of coal, phosphate, and sodium compounds are also known to exist in public land areas and some are under lease. Accurate data concerning production of the metallic and other minerals subject to claim location under the General Mining Law 1 are not available since there are no Federal records segregating production among private, state, and Federal lands. However, in 1965, the western public land states, in which over 90 percent of the public lands lie, produced over 90 percent of the Nation's domestic copper, 95 percent of the mercury and silver, 100 percent of the nickel, molybdenum, and potash, and about 50 percent of the lead. In fact, most of the known domestic resources of metallic minerals other than iron are situated in the West. 1 30 U.S.C. §§ 22 et seq. (1964). 121 |