Eastern Mineral Resources Team
Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS)
The Mineral Resources Data System (MRDS) is a computerized
storage, retrieval, and display system developed and managed under the support
of the U.S. Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program. MRDS
is an international data base of mineral site records with related geologic,
commodity, and deposit information. New records are continually being added,
and existing records updated or upgraded. MRDS Products
and Data Availability are listed below.
An overview of the database is found online in USGS
Fact-Sheet FS 122-00.
See also: Lipin, B.R., 2002, The Mineral Databases of the U.S. Geological
Survey, in Briskey, J.A., and Schulz, K.J., eds., Agenda, Extended Abstracts
and Bibliographies for a Workshop on Deposit Modeling, Mineral Resources Assessment,
and Their Role in Sustainable Development: USGS
Open-file Report 02-423, p. 35.
MRDS Users
- U.S. Geological Survey
- Other Federal Agencies
- Foreign Governments
- State Agencies
- Academia
- Industry
- General Public
MRDS Database Structure
MRDS is a worldwide data base of metallic and industrial mineral
sites which was started in 1969 by the USGS. Since 1999, data from MRDS and MAS/MILS
(a database maintained by the old Bureau of Mines) have been combined into the
MRDS format. Mineral information is stored in records in approximately two hundred
data fields. Each record can comprise a mineral occurrence, prospect, mine, mining
district, region, or plant. A numeric record number uniquely identifies each
site. The data fields are grouped
under the following principal categories. The data can be searched and sorted
using any of these fields.
- Record Identification
- Location
- Geology
- Description of deposit
- Exploration and development
- Description of workings
- Commodity
- References
- Production, reserves and resources.
MRDS Records Overview
MRDS Products and Data Availability
- The main public interface to MRDS on the internet is at the Mineral Resources
On-Line Spatial Data websites:
http://mrdata.usgs.gov
http://tin.er.usgs.gov
The first of these links is a Geographic Information System (GIS) interface.
The second is a text-based interface. Both interfaces use a copy of the database
that includes all the records but only some of the fields.
- Another public interface is in FileMaker format. This is a full copy of
the database and works with a browser or with a FileMaker client. (The following
link leaves this site.) http://130.11.48.100/fmi/iwp/res/iwp_auth.html?sid=01F727387077886E11D47BBC (then
Select the 1_MRDS_FM link, select the Guest Account button, click Login.)
It is also available on DVD disc in native FileMaker format, or as a runtime
version which does not require a FileMaker client. Contact pschrube@usgs.gov
in Reston, VA.
- MRDS and MAS/MILS databases are also available as a CD-ROM
set in the U.S.
Geological Survey Digital Data Series, DDS-52: U.S. Geological Survey
Mineral Databases-MRDS and MAS/MILS. (This CD-ROM set is not available
online.) For orders within the United States, the cost for the set is $42.00
U.S. plus $5 handling fee per order.
To order a CD-ROM set, write, call or fax:
USGS Information Services
Box 25286
Denver Federal Center
Denver, Colorado 80225-0046
Tel: 888-ASK-USGS; Fax 303-202-4693
For more information, contact:
MRDS project chief, U.S. Geological Survey, 12201 Sunrise Valley
Drive, MS 954, Reston, Virginia 20192; phone (703) 648-6142; e-mail: pschrube@usgs.gov
U.S. Department of the Interior |
U.S. Geological Survey