Historical files from Federal government mineral exploration-assistance programs, 1950 to 1974

A new U.S. Geological Survey Web site (http://minerals.usgs.gov/dockets/) provides public access to files or “dockets” for Federally supported critical mineral exploration conducted form from 1950 to 1974. This map shows the number of dockets per county in the United States. The majority of site locations are in one of the 11 Western States.

History of the Programs

In 1950, Congress enacted the Defense Production Act, which authorized the President to make provisions for the encouragement of exploration, development, and mining of critical and strategic minerals, metals, and materials. The President delegated his authority to the Department of the Interior, among other agencies, and the Secretary of the Interior established the Defense Minerals Administration (DMA). The DMA provided U.S. Government support for exploration of unknown or undeveloped mineral deposits. To this end, the DMA established a program that would provide funds for projects that sought or developed sources of strategic or critical metals and minerals. When the DMA ended in November 1951, the Department of the Interior formed the Defense Minerals Exploration Administration (DMEA) and continued the program until June 1958. In August of that year, Congress authorized the Secretary of the Interior to provide financial assistance that would promote exploration for domestic mineral reserves, and the Secretary formed the Office of Minerals Exploration (OME). In 1965, OME was transferred to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), where it remained until Congress canceled funding in 1974. From 1950 to 1974, contracts between mine owners and these agencies provided financial assistance for exploration on a joint-participation basis. These contracts are documented in more than 5,000 property files (called “dockets”) generated by the DMA, DMEA, and OME exploration-assistance programs.

History of the Files

A master set of dockets was stored at Suitland, Maryland, and then transferred to the Spokane, Washington, office of the USGS in 1993. Files previously held at the USGS National Center at Reston, Virginia, and those formerly held at USGS field offices in Denver, Colorado, Menlo Park, California, and Knoxville, Tennessee, were also transferred to Spokane. A digital index to these files was created in 1997, and the USGS began to provide public access to the paper copies of dockets. Original docket material is composed of vintage 1950–70 era paper, carbon paper copies, mimeograph copies, blueline copies of maps, linen or mylar maps, and other fragile and sometimes poor quality media. These types of materials deteriorate over time as a result of normal aging, handling, and being duplicated. An effort to preserve the data began in 2009, and the entire collection of dockets was electronically scanned. The scanning process used optical character recognition (OCR) when possible, and files were converted into Portable Document Format (.pdf) files, which require Adobe Acrobat Reader for viewing. In 2010, the scans were placed online (http://minerals.usgs.gov/dockets/index.htm) and are available to download free of charge.

Docket Contents

The first item in most dockets is a letter from an applicant requesting Federal Government assistance in exploring for minerals. The program application contains information concerning the property’s location, mineral commodity (limited commodities were acceptable under the different Programs; see the Web site for a complete list of commodities by program), and funds requested. The next item is often a site evaluation, including recommendations, done by USGS or U.S. Bureau of Mines geologists. Additional reports might detail the ongoing status of the application, specifics of any financial contract awarded, results of exploration, production summaries, financial repayment schedules, interim evaluations, and contract completion data. The file size of a scanned docket is determined by the amount of information contained in the original paper docket and how many (if any) oversized maps are included in the scan.

Area of Coverage Scans of Dockets are Available Online

select “All by number” or “All by State.” A new Web page will open with a table showing an ordered list of all dockets by number (ascending order) or by State (alphabetical). The table contains hot links to the docket .pdf scans and lists the file sizes.

Where this page came from

This page was imported from U.S. Geological Survey. Published by the U.S. Geological Survey and, as a work of the United States government, in the public domain.

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