Importance of Federal Lands for Sources of Energy and Minerals

Minerals play an invaluable role in enhancing our quality of life, growing the economy and strengthening the national security of the United States. The U.S. is home to a wealth of mineral resources, with reserves of more commodity minerals and metals than any other country.

Federal lands, which comprise nearly 700 million acres of this country’s mineral estate, play a significant role in supplying present and future mineral resource needs. Access to federal lands for mineral exploration and development is critical to maintaining a strong domestic mining industry. Most federal lands are located in 12 western states, which are the source of much of our nation’s coal and mineral endowment. As a result, national policy affecting the availability and use of federal lands for resource development has significant implications for whether or not these important resources are available to meet the nation’s needs.

Informed decisions about access to resources are critical. As global demand for minerals continues to grow exponentially and as U.S. reliance on foreign sources of minerals increase, any further closure of federal lands to mining will affect the supply of these vital materials for U.S. manufacturing and technology innovation.

Currently new mining operations are either restricted or banned on more than half of all federal lands through acts of Congress, presidential authority and administrative actions. Most of those lands were withdrawn or restricted from development before comprehensive resource inventories and economic assessments have been made.