Mining (Except Oil & Gas)

Mining except oil and gas (NAICS 212) covers the extraction of metallic ores, coal, and nonmetallic minerals from subsurface and surface deposits. Nevada dominates U.S. gold production — the Carlin Trend alone produces more gold than most countries — while Arizona's copper corridor anchors domestic base metal output through operations run by Freeport-McMoRan and others. Minnesota's Iron Range supplies the majority of domestically mined iron ore, feeding steelmakers through taconite pellet operations.

The subsector splits into three structural tiers. Large publicly traded miners like Newmont, Freeport-McMoRan, and Arch Resources operate capital-intensive sites with multi-decade mine plans and billion-dollar capital expenditure programs. Regional aggregate and crushed stone producers — numbering in the thousands — serve construction markets within a 50-mile haul radius. Specialty mineral operations extract lithium, rare earths, and industrial clays for battery, electronics, and chemical feedstock applications.

Regulatory oversight falls under the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) for workplace safety and the EPA for environmental permitting. The 1872 General Mining Law still governs hardrock mining claims on federal land, though reform proposals surface regularly. The Department of Energy's critical minerals list and Executive Order 13817 on a Federal Strategy to Ensure Secure and Reliable Supplies of Critical Minerals have accelerated permitting reviews for lithium and rare earth projects, particularly at sites like Thacker Pass in Nevada and the Mountain Pass rare earth mine in California operated by MP Materials.