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EVALUATION OF THE MRSP PLAN AND RECOMMENDATIONS FOR 24 SUBPROGRAMS has led to the characterization of major deposits in the United States (and overseas), and understanding of ore-forming processes. The USGS has produced excellent descriptions of ore deposits that have proved useful for environmental mitigation and remediation of abandoned mine lands, as well as for mineral exploration. Mineral resource assessments and mineral-environmental assessments conducted by the MRSP also have contributed to land use decisions by the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, which together are responsible for managing approximately 740 million acres of federal lands. The MRSP Plan contains subprograms and components that have the potential to achieve results that are as significant as past accomplishments of the MRSP and its forerunners. The MRSP Plan describes important objectives and means to accomplish them. Among these objectives, the growing emphasis on research on the geochemical behavior of mineral deposits in response to weathering and the environmental implications of their development are properly emphasized. ASSESSMENTS SUBPROGRAM Mineral resource and related mineral-environmental assessments are appropriate activities for the federal government and specifically for the MRSP of the USGS. In simplest terms, a mineral resource assessment estimates the quantity of undiscovered mineral resource that is expected to occur within a designated area. The general uses of these assessments, primarily by the federal and state land management agencies, are well documented in the MRSP Plan and were confirmed by numerous presentations to the panel. Initially, national and regional resource assessments were driven by concerns for strategic mineral supply as related to national security and by the need to stimulate domestic exploration for particular commodities, such as uranium. In recent years, mineral resource assessments have been driven increasingly by concerns for land management. In addition, the need to understand the environmental consequences of mineral resource development places new demands on the Assessments Subprogram.
