Idaho’s phosphate industry has three large, open pit mines operating in 2007 in Caribou County. They mine phosphate rock from the Phosphoria Formation for use in fertilizers, chemicals and consumer products. Three processing plants are located in Pocatello and Soda Springs. Other important industrial minerals include sand and gravel and crushed stone for aggregate, pumice, industrial garnets, zeolites and building stone.

For more information about geology, historic and current mining areas, gold and silver and other metals, see GeoNote 40, as well as earlier GeoNotes and the Pamphlet Series of the Idaho Bureau of Mines and Geology, available through the Survey’s Moscow office. Mine histories of many properties are also available in the Staff Report publications.

After the Survey canvasses current mining activity each year, the results are reported at the December convention of the Northwest Mining Association. Written accounts are published each year in the May issue of "Mining Engineering" journal and provided to the U.S. Geological Survey Minerals Information Office for publication with their annual Minerals Yearbook chapters. For more details about mining, exploration, prospecting, and mineral resources, contact Dr. Virginia Gillerman in the Boise Branch Office of the Survey.