442 Using the Engineering Literature, Second Edition
and economic publications designed to provide timely statistical data on production, dis-
tribution, stocks, and consumption of signicant mineral commodities. These publications
are issued monthly, quarterly, or annually” (from Web page).
Mineral Resource Data System (MRDS) http://tin.er.usgs.gov/mrds/ (accessed July 11, 2010).
May be formally cited as U.S. Geological Survey, 2005, Mineral Resources Data System:
U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA. MRDS contains over 300,000 sites with variable-
length records of metallic and nonmetallic mineral resources of the world. A record
contains descriptive information about mineral deposits and mineral commodities. The
types of inform