The objective of the US Geological Survey’s mineral deposit database project (USMIN) is to develop a comprehensive twenty-first century geospatial database that is the authoritative source of the most important mines, mineral deposits, and mineral districts of the US. Since May 2017, the project has focused on critical minerals. Data for critical minerals that are produced as products are relatively robust, whereas data for critical minerals that may be recovered as byproducts are commonly of much poorer quality. Similarly, more is known about critical minerals that occur in conventional deposits than where those critical minerals occur in unconventional deposits. For example, rare earth elements occur principally in deposits hosted by alkaline igneous rocks, but there is potential for their production from phosphate rock mining, which is less documented. Lithium (Li) has been recovered from pegmatites and brines, but other Li-bearing deposit types have been delineated that may go into production. Cobalt may be produced as a byproduct or coproduct from a wide range of mineral deposit types, whereas rhenium is a byproduct of copper ore. Significant opportunities for research exist that could help identify new sources of critical minerals, and may also help increase production and recovery from existing sources.

美国地质调查局的矿床数据库项目（USMIN）的目标是开发一个全面的21世纪地理空间数据库，该数据库是美国最重要的矿山，矿床和矿区的权威来源。自2017年5月以来，该项目专注于关键矿产。作为产品生产的关键矿物质的数据相对可靠，而可能作为副产品回收的关键矿物质的数据质量通常较差。同样，与那些非常规矿床中存在的关键矿物质相比，对于常规矿床中的关键矿物质了解更多。例如，稀土元素主要存在于碱性火成岩的沉积物中，但有可能通过磷酸盐岩开采产生，记录较少。已从伟晶岩和盐水中回收了锂（Li），但已确定了其他可能含铅的含锂矿床类型。钴可能是多种矿床类型的副产品或副产品，而rh是铜矿石的副产品。存在大量的研究机会，可以帮助识别关键矿物的新来源，也可以帮助增加现有来源的产量和回收率。