WHAT MINERAL COMMODITIES ARE PRODUCED IN ILLINOIS?
Coal and petroleum, two of the world’s most important mineral resources, are produced in Illinois. Iron ore, another mineral of extreme importance, is brought into the steel mills of the Chicago and East St. Louis areas from deposits in Minnesota and Missouri. Some ore from foreign countries is also processed in these mills.
A great variety of mineral commodities are produced in Illinois. In the order of their 1963 value ([fig. 6]) they are (1) crude oil and natural gas, (2) coal, (3) clay products, (4) crushed stone and cement, (5) common sand and gravel, (6) special sands, (7) fluorspar, and (8) metals—zinc and lead.