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Locatable Mineral Assessment Tracts for the U.S. Geological Survey Sagebrush Mineral-Resource Assessment Project

Metadata Updated: October 30, 2025

The polygon (vector) feature class represents locatable mineral resource assessment tracts (tracts of land) associated with the Department of the Interior (DOI) Sagebrush Focal Areas (SFAs) in Montana, Wyoming and Utah, central Idaho, and the Oregon-Nevada-Idaho border area. The mineral-resources tracts are geographic areas that were assessed by the USGS and were determined to be geologically favorable for a deposit type of interest to a depth of 1 kilometer. Qualitative assessment methods outlined by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) were used to develop tract boundaries and to assign a level of mineral-resource potential and certainty to each tract. The general process included (1) identifying possible mineral deposit types for locatable commodities specified by BLM for each focal area, (2) outlining those areas that potentially contained mineral deposits based on geology, mineral occurrences, geophysics, soil and stream-sediment geochemistry, alteration mineral assemblages inferred from satellite imagery, BLM claims and permit data, mineral-exploration activity, and existing mineral-resource assessment data, and (3) evaluating the level of mineral-resource potential and level of certainty associated with the outlined areas using BLM assessment categories. A full description of the assessment is provided in the accompanying report (Day and others, 2016). SFAs, identified by agencies of the DOI, are high-quality sagebrush habitat areas supporting high densities of breeding greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus). SFAs are within priority habitat areas or areas where land-use measures are intended to minimize or avoid habitat disturbance. Seven SFAs are within the USGS Sagebrush Mineral-Resource Assessment Project study area. They include the Bear River Watershed, North-Central Idaho, North-Central Montana, Southeastern Oregon and North-Central Nevada, Sheldon-Hart Mountain National Wildlife Refuge Complex, Southern Idaho and Northern Nevada, and Southwestern and South-Central Wyoming SFAs, as well as additional areas in Nevada (termed the “Nevada additions”) proposed by the State of Nevada. Landscape-scale conservation efforts by the BLM, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), State agencies, private land owners, and other partners are striving to conserve the breeding sagebrush habitat for the greater sage-grouse across these areas. Accompanying report (Chapter A): Day, W.C., Hammarstrom, J.M., Zientek, M.L., and Frost, T.P., eds., 2016, Overview with methods and procedures of the U.S. Geological Survey mineral-resource assessment of the Sagebrush Focal Areas of Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, and Wyoming: U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations Report 2016–5089, 211 p., http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/sir20165089.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 13, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 30, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-577feb75e4b0ef4d2f4617fc
Data Last Modified 2020-08-21T00:00:00Z
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id b53bc2be-2604-41d8-b982-6c70d25fc824
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -121.54526824, 40.224691368, -105.587350315, 48.44782226
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 97b3fad8daece78592fb47b26d9ac46d314e44309eb7a0b377a51952c982f995
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -121.54526824, 40.224691368, -121.54526824, 48.44782226, -105.587350315, 48.44782226, -105.587350315, 40.224691368, -121.54526824, 40.224691368}

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