SIC 1499 Miscellaneous Nonmetallic Minerals, Except Fuels

Contenidos

• NAICS CODE(S).
• FURTHER READING.

SIC 1499

This category covers establishments that primarily mine, quarry, mill, or otherwise prepare nonmetallic minerals, except fuels. This industry includes shaping natural abrasive stones at the quarry. Establishments that primarily produce blast, grinding, or polishing sand are classified in SIC 1446: Industrial Sand, and those calcining gypsum are classified in SIC 3275: Gypsum Products.

NAICS CODE(S)

212319

Other Crushed and Broken Stone Mining and Quarrying

212399

All Other Non-Metallic Mineral Mining

Some of the most economically significant minerals mined by industry firms included garnet, gemstones, graphite, gypsum, industrial diamonds, perlite, and quartz. Other minerals produced include asbestos, asphalt, burrstone, calcite, catlinite, corundum, cryolite, diatomite, emery, fill dirt, gilsonite, greensand, Iceland spar, meerschaum, mica, millstone, oilstone, ozokerite, peat, pipestone, pozzolana, pumice, pyrophyllite, rubbing stone, scoria, scythestone, vermiculite, whetstone, wollastonite, and wurtzilite.

Garnet was used primarily for industrial applications, particularly as an abrasive or as a filtration medium. Between 1999 and 2003, the United States shifted from a net exporter to a net importer of industrial garnet. Although consumption over this time period grew from 33.7 million metric tons to 58.9 million metric tons, production declined from 60.7 million metric tons to 38.7 million metric tons. Consequently, the United States became increasingly reliant on imports, which more than doubled between 1999 and 2003, growing from 12 million metric tons to 28.4 million metric tons. Australia accounted for 47 percent of U.S. imports; India, 35 percent; and China, 17 percent.

Three U.S. companies—two in New York and one in Idaho—produced garnet as of 2003. Production was valued at $3.9 million that year. The United States was the largest consumer of industrial garnet in the world, and garnet was used for air/water blasting media (35 percent); water jet cutting (30 percent), which used concentrated, high-pressure water jets for precision cutting of metals; water filtration (15 percent); abrasive powders (10 percent); and composite materials, fabrics, and fiberglass. Demand for industrial garnet was expected to remain strong through the early part of the twenty-first century, due partly to growing demand in blasting markets.

Minerals were defined as gemstones less by geological...