Critical Minerals Found in Utah

Utah is a state with diverse geology and natural resources, and this diversity extends to mineral resources that are deemed critical by the U.S. Department of the Interior. Utah’s critical mineral portfolio includes minerals currently in production, defined resources, exploration projects, and potential prospects.

Utah is notable for being the global leader in beryllium production; being the only domestic producer of magnesium metal; being one of two states producing potash and the only domestic producer of high-value potash; being a byproduct producer of platinum, palladium, and rhenium from the world-class Bingham Canyon copper-molybdenum mine; and being a helium producer from natural gas streams.

Utah has known resources of aluminum, fluorspar, indium, lithium, uranium, and vanadium, and has previously produced arsenic, antimony, barite, germanium, gallium, manganese, tellurium, and tungsten. Rare earth elements (REEs) could be a potential byproduct of beryllium mine tailings (Mills, S.E. and Rupke, A., 2020, Critical minerals of Utah: Utah Geological Survey Circular 129, 49 p., https://doi. org/10.34191/C-129).

Critical Minerals Reports