Databases and Simplified Geology for Mineralized Areas, Claims, Mines and Prospects in Colorado

This data release contains mineral resource data for metallic and nonmetallic mineral sites in the State of Colorado. Along with the resource data, there is additional data, such as mineralized areas and mining districts; mine, prospect and commodity information; claim density by section; county boundaries; quadrangles; and simplified geology. All the geographic data are provided in formats for two commonly used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software packages (MapInfo and ESRI?s ArcView). Not only does GIS software allow the data to be shown as layers in ?map? views that can be displayed with various geographic and geologic data, but the data can be queried and analyzed relative to data in any of the layers. Free shareware, ArcExplorer, is provided with this report so users may display the data in ?map? views and query the various datasets (Appendix A) without requiring a GIS program such as Arc/Info1, ArcView1, or MapInfo1. Additional data, such as original and unedited mine and prospect files, bibliography and references, and text are provided in appropriate formats such as in spreadsheets (Microsoft Excel), or documents (text, WordPerfect, or Microsoft Word). [Summary provided by the USGS.]