Washington has an $800 million per year mineral industry that includes sand and gravel, crushed stone, coal, metals, and industrial minerals such as diatomite, clay, silica, and olivine. Industry uses our maps and publications, along with other reports from our library, to help find new resources.
In the past, the Division has done many mineral and other resource inventories. Recent emphasis has been on locating the sand, gravel, and quarry rock resources needed for highway and infrastructure construction. We have produced sand and gravel resource maps that are useful for guiding zoning decisions and balanced resource planning at the local level. To date about 10 percent of the state has been mapped for sand, gravel, and crushed rock resource potential.