USGS MRDS Mineral Resources Scraper

Extract mineral deposits, active mines, past-producer mines, prospects, and occurrences from the USGS Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) — the canonical US registry of mineral resources, globally referenced by mining analysts, defense planners, and exploration geologists.

What You Get

Each record includes:

Field	Description
dep_id	MRDS deposit ID
name	Site/deposit name
country, state_province, county	Location
latitude, longitude, elevation_m	Geocoordinates (WGS84)
development_status	Producer / Past Producer / Prospect / Occurrence / Plant
operation_type	Surface / Underground / Placer / etc.
mining_method	Mining method description
significance	USGS significance flag (Y/N)
commodities_primary	Primary commodities (semicolon-separated)
commodities_secondary	Secondary/tertiary commodities
commodity_codes	USGS commodity codes
deposit_type	Geological deposit model type
host_rock	Host rock formation
ore_minerals / gangue_minerals	Minerology
production_years	Production year range
first_produced / last_produced	Production years
discovery_year	Year of discovery
deposit_size	USGS size classification (S/M/L/XL)
grade	MRDS record quality grade (A–E)
source_url	Link to the MRDS record
update_date	Last update timestamp

Input Options

Field	Description
commodityFilter	Commodity to search (e.g. Lithium, Cobalt, Nickel, Copper, Rare-earth elements). Defaults to Lithium.
country	Filter by country (e.g. United States)
stateProvince	Filter by US state (e.g. Nevada)
developmentStatus	Filter by status (all, Producer, Past Producer, Prospect, Occurrence, Plant)
significantOnly	When true, return only USGS-flagged significant deposits
maxItems	Maximum records to return (default: 15)

Use Cases

• Mining-equity research: Screen TSX-V / ASX explorers against MRDS for property due-diligence
• Defense critical minerals: Inventory US lithium, cobalt, nickel, REE, and graphite deposits for DPA Title III and USGS Critical Minerals List analysis
• NEPA / permitting: Identify nearby MRDS sites for environmental impact assessments
• ESG due-diligence: Map active and past-producer mines by commodity and location
• Exploration geology: Find deposits by commodity + geology type + development stage

Supported Commodities (examples)

Lithium · Cobalt · Nickel · Copper · Rare-earth elements · Graphite · Gallium · Germanium · Tin · Tungsten · Gold · Silver · Platinum · Antimony · Arsenic · Beryllium

MRDS covers ~700 distinct commodities. Use the exact USGS commodity name as it appears on mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds/commodity-codes.html.

Data Source

USGS Mineral Resources Data System — mrdata.usgs.gov/mrds

Public domain data. No authentication required. USGS updates records continuously; update_date reflects the last MRDS edit per deposit.