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Value of Colorado Minerals and Mineral Fuels Soars One of the CGS' statutory mandates is "to promote economic development of mineral resources." We must have done a good job because the value of all of Colorado's mineral and mineral fuel resources drastically increased in the past year. As an example, the price of molybdenum increased from a low of $2 per pound in 2002 to a high of $37 per pound in December 2004. Vanadium, which is often produced with uranium, increased from $1.90 per pound in December of 2004 to $9.50 per pound in February, 2005. Historically Colorado's mineral and mineral fuel value has averaged about $4 billion per year. Last year it doubled to more than $8 billion! And, it may be close to $10 billion in 2005. Read all about it in the CGS' 2004 Mineral and Mineral Fuel Activity Report. 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 Colorado Commodity Prices Percent Increase (2003 to 2004) Gold Natural Gas Oil Coal Molybdenum Uranium Percentage Increase in Annual Average Price Minerals The MMF staff continues its long tradi- tion of writing annual reports that describe the activity of the mineral and mineral fuel industries of Colorado, and their economic impact. The annual report published by the CGS in the spring of every year is a comprehensive review with production and exploration information, and news of mergers, start- ups and closures. The CGS also writes reports for the Mining Engineering magazine for their May issue, which is an annual "round up" of mining activity by states. The nar- rative portion of the U.S. Geological annual minerals report is also written by CGS staff. In the fall of every year the MMF staff participates in the University of Colorado Leeds Business School Annual Business Economic Outlook Forum. This forum offers a quick review of business and production activity for Musher Madness CGS geologist T.C. Wait was profiled, along with her sled dogs, in the Decem- ber 2004 issue of AEG News, newsletter of the Association of Engineering Geol- ogists. TC and her husband spend many weekends in the winter racing their dogs. In March they were Chief Han- dlers for a Colorado team competing in Alaska's 1,100 -mile Iditarod Race. W T.C. Wait with three of her sixteen sled dogs. each of Colorado's economic sectors and a forecast for the upcoming year. In 2004, the CGS released a new Direc- tory o f Active and Permitted Mines in Colo- rado. The publication, released in CD format, includes a full -size, cartographic - quality map of the state showing the locations of each mine with a number The CGS is working on a cooperative project with the U.S. Geological Survey as part of their Central Colorado Assess- ment Project. The CGS is updating the Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS) database, which is the major digital source of mineral resource information for Colo- rado and the rest of the U.S. The database corresponding to a listing in the text was originally designed in the 1970s and directory. The directory lists details of various scientists have entered new data each mine, such as owner, contact infor- mation, location, annual production (if available), and basic geological informa- tion such as formation name and age. The CD contains GIS shapefiles of the mines, the directory in both Access and PDF format, and the map, which is PDF format. A full -size print of the color map may be obtained on demand from the CGS, for those without large- format printing capabilities. into the database periodically since that time. The CGS staff is working coopera- tively with U.S. Geological Survey scien- tists to upgrade and update the Colorado portion of the database based on new or more complete information. The location of many of the older MRDS records are often too generalized, and sometimes they are altogether wrong; using GIS software and more careful literature research, the locations for mineral deposit records can be markedly improved. CGS ROCKTALK Vol. 8, No. 1