Query, analyze, and summarize USGS Mineral Commodity Summaries data for critical minerals including lithium, magnesium, cobalt, and 80+ other commodities. Use this skill whenever the user asks about mineral production statistics, global reserves, commodity pricing trends, critical mineral supply chains, import reliance, or world mine output — even if they do not mention USGS or MCS by name. Trigger for phrases like "lithium production by country", "magnesium reserves", "critical mineral prices", "U.S. import reliance for lithium", "world mine production of cobalt", "mineral commodity data", "how much lithium does Australia produce", "battery mineral supply chain", or any request for mineral production, trade, or reserve figures. Covers MCS 2025/2026 data releases and the World Minerals Outlook to 2029. Produces country-level tables with narrative trend analysis.
Fetches and analyzes mineral commodity data from USGS ScienceBase — including Mineral Commodity Summaries (MCS) annual data releases and the World Minerals Outlook to 2029.
None required. All USGS ScienceBase data is public.
| Source | Coverage | Format | Update Cycle |
|---|---|---|---|
| MCS 2026 Commodities Data | 80+ minerals, U.S. salient stats + world production + reserves | Single aggregated CSV (3.2 MB) | Annual (January-February) |
| MCS 2025 Per-Commodity Releases | Individual commodity salient CSVs | Small CSV per commodity | Annual |
| World Minerals Outlook 2029 | Li, Mg, Co, Ga, He, Pd, Pt, Ti — world production by country 2018-2029 | CSV (192 KB) | Periodic (latest March 2025) |
| MCS PDF Chapters | Full narrative + tables per commodity | Annual |
Preferred data path: Use MCS 2026 aggregated CSV first (most complete and current). Fall back to MCS 2025 per-commodity CSVs for detail. Use the World Minerals Outlook for production projections through 2029.
Base URL: https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/
ScienceBase is not a traditional query API — it hosts downloadable data files organized as catalog items. The workflow is: search for items, get file URLs from item metadata, then download and parse CSV files locally.
Search items:
curl -s "https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/items?\
q=mineral+commodity+summaries+2025+lithium\
&format=json&max=5&fields=title,id,files"
Get item details (with file download URLs):
curl -s "https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/6797ff62d34ea8c18376e1cb?\
format=json&fields=title,files"
Download a CSV file:
curl -sL "{downloadUri}" -o output.csv
| Item | ScienceBase ID | Key File |
|---|---|---|
| MCS 2026 Aggregated | 696a75d5d4be0228872d3bf8 | MCS2026_Commodities_Data.csv |
| MCS 2025 Salient (all) | 6793e234d34e72688d6b71e7 | Salient_Commodity_Data_Release_Grouped.zip |
| MCS 2025 Lithium | 6797ff62d34ea8c18376e1cb | mcs2025-lithium_salient.csv |
| MCS 2025 Mg Compounds | 6797ffe2d34ea8c18376e1da | mcs2025-mgcomp_salient.csv |
| MCS 2025 Mg Metal | 6797ffffd34ea8c18376e1e5 | mcs2025-mgmet_salient.csv |
| World Minerals Outlook 2029 | 67b8b168d34e1a2e835b7e6c | Outlook 2025 Data Release 031125.csv |