Industrial-mineral resources of Oklahoma

              Information Series #4, June 1998
INDUSTRIAL-MINERAL RESOURCES OF OKLAHOMAl
Kenneth S. Johnson2
INTRODUCTION
Industrial minerals (which are the nonfuel, nonmetal­lic
minerals that have potential for economic use) are
widely distributed in Oklahoma (Fig. 1), and many of
them are being mined for local, regional, and national
markets. Numerous and varied industrial-mineral in­dustries
are active in 69 of Oklahoma's 77 counties. Al­though
such activity is widespread in the State, some of
the most important regions are the Wichita, Arbuckle, and
Ouachita Mountain uplifts in the south, and the Ozark
uplift in the northeast (Fig. 2); it is in these areas where
some of the State's unique rock and mineral deposits have
been uplifted and are now exposed at the land surface.
Crushed-stone and building-stone resources include
limestone, dolomite, granite, and rhyolite; other major
construction resources are cement (made from limestone
and shale) and the extensive sand and gravel deposits
along modern and ancient riverways. Glass sand (a
high-purity silica sand) is used for glass making, foundry
sands, ceramics, and abrasives. Enormous resources of
gypsum in the western part of the State are mined for
wallboard, for plaster, as retarder in portland cement, and
as soil conditioner. Thick layers of rock salt underlie most
of western Oklahoma, and natural springs emit
high-salinity brine to the several salt plains. Oklahoma
iodine, produced from deep brines in the northwest, is
the Nation's sole domestic supply. Other important in­dustrial
minerals in Oklahoma include clays and shales
(to make brick and tile), and tripoli and volcanic ash (abra­sive
and/or absorbent materials). Gem-stone produc­tion
includes fresh-water mussel shells and fresh-water
pearls.
The total estimated value of industrial-mineral pro­duction
in Oklahoma during 1997 was $411 million
(Table 1), and the State ranked 34th in the Nation. Lead-ing
nonfuel commodities during 1997 were crushed stone
($134 million), portland and masonry cement ($131 mil­lion),
sand and gravel ($33 million), glass sand ($27 mil­lion),
iodine ($24 million), and gypsum ($18 million)
(Table 1).
This report, modified from Johnson (1993), is a de­scription
of the State's industrial minerals, arranged al­phabetically.
Many of the data are based upon reports by
Johnson (1969a, 1977), Morris (1982), and the Oklahoma
Department of Mines (1991); the reader is referred to these
reports, as well as other reports that are referenced sepa­rately
for several of the commodities. The many compa­nies
that mine Oklahoma's mineral resources are listed in
a "Directory of Oklahoma Mining Industry" (Arndt and
Springer, 1993), and maps from that report are reproduced
here (Figs. 3-6) to show the number of current mining op­erations
for specified commodities in each county.
ASPHALT
Asphalt is an oil-based commodity, but, because it
has been used mainly as a road-surfacing and tar mate­rial
in Oklahoma, it is herein considered as a
nonfuel-mineral resource. Asphalt forms where crude oil
migrates upward near the land surface: the lighter hy­drocarbons
evaporate, leaving a thicker, heavy residue
that impregnates the rocks as rock asphalt, or that fills
voids as a tar-like substance called asphaltite.
The major sources of rock asphalt and asphaltite are
in sedimentary rocks in and around the Arbuckle and
Ouachita Mountains of southern Oklahoma (Jordan,
1964). Additional smaller deposits occur in sedimentary
rocks surrounding the Wichita Mountains and in north­east
Oklahoma. From the State's large resources, about 3
million tons of asphalt were produced between 1891 and
1960, chiefly from asphaltic sandstones and limestones
IJohnson, K. 5., 1993, Industrial-mineral resources of Oklahoma, in Johnson, K. S. (ed.), Industrial-minerals development in
Oklahoma-a symposium: Oklahoma Geological Survey Special Publication 93-2, p. 1-10.
2Associate Director, Oklahoma Geological Survey.
I