Industrial Minerals and Construction Materials of Wyoming

Abstract Industrial minerals and construction materials are relatively low-cost products produced in relatively large amounts. Salt and stone were used by earliest man. Today, every state in the United States and every region of the world produces some industrial minerals and construction materials. Industrial minerals and construction materials produced in Wyoming include aggregate (including railroad ballast), bentonite, common clay, decorative stone, feldspar, gypsum, leonardite, limestone, mineral pigment, shale, sodium sulfate, sulfur, and trona. Other industrial minerals and construction materials produced in Wyoming in the past include alum, asbestos, dimension stone, epsomite, fluorspar, garnet, graphite, halite, mica, phosphate, pumice and pumicite, silica raw materials, and vermiculite. Industrial minerals having development potential include anorthosite, decorative and dimension stone, diamond (industrial), diatomite, garnet, halite, mica, phosphate, potash, rare earth oxides, silica rock and silica sand, sinter, tantalum and columbium (niobium), vermiculite, and zeolites. Occurrences of alunite, cordierite, kyanite and related minerals, peat, rutile, staurolite, talc, tripoli, and wollastonite are also found in Wyoming.