Deposit
Bear Valley Monazite Placer District
Bear Valley Monazite Placer District is a deposit with published resource estimates in Idaho, recorded in the USGS USMIN rare earth element occurrence database (ver. 4.0, June 2019).
Location: Idaho, United States
Commodities: rare earth elements (in monazite); yttrium (in euxenite); tantalum (in euxenite); niobium (in euxenite); thorium; uranium
Published resource estimates
| Material | Class | Amount | Grade | Contained | As of | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| thorium oxide (ThO2) | Unclassified | ≈30,800 t | 4.73111 percent | 1,280 metric tons Th | Jan 1, 1980 | Staatz and others (1980), Page 17, Table 6 — Staatz, M.H., Hall, R.B., Macke, D.L., Armbrustmacher, T.J., and Brownfield, I.K., 1980, Thorium resources of selected regions in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 824, 32 p. |
| niobium oxide (Nb2O5) | Unclassified | 2,210 t | — | 1,550 metric tons Nb | Jan 1, 1980 | Staatz and others (1980), Page 17 — Staatz, M.H., Hall, R.B., Macke, D.L., Armbrustmacher, T.J., and Brownfield, I.K., 1980, Thorium resources of selected regions in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 824, 32 p. |
| total rare-earth oxide (TREO) | Unclassified | 16,200 t | — | 16,200 metric tons TREO | Jan 1, 1980 | Staatz and others (1980), Page 17 — Staatz, M.H., Hall, R.B., Macke, D.L., Armbrustmacher, T.J., and Brownfield, I.K., 1980, Thorium resources of selected regions in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 824, 32 p. |
| zircon (ZrSiO4) | Unclassified | 853.1 t | — | 425.1 metric tons Zr | Jan 1, 1980 | Staatz and others (1980), Page 17 — Staatz, M.H., Hall, R.B., Macke, D.L., Armbrustmacher, T.J., and Brownfield, I.K., 1980, Thorium resources of selected regions in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 824, 32 p. |
| columbite (FeNb2O6) | Unclassified | 1,370 t | — | 754.1 metric tons Nb | Jan 1, 1980 | Staatz and others (1980), Page 17 — Staatz, M.H., Hall, R.B., Macke, D.L., Armbrustmacher, T.J., and Brownfield, I.K., 1980, Thorium resources of selected regions in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 824, 32 p. |
| ilmenite (FeTiO3) | Unclassified | 355,000 t | — | 112,000 metric tons Ti | Jan 1, 1980 | Staatz and others (1980), Page 17 — Staatz, M.H., Hall, R.B., Macke, D.L., Armbrustmacher, T.J., and Brownfield, I.K., 1980, Thorium resources of selected regions in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 824, 32 p. |
| uranium oxide (U3O8) | Unclassified | ≈30,800 t | 4.34111 percent | 1,140 metric tons U | Jan 1, 1980 | Staatz and others (1980), Page 17, Table 6 — Staatz, M.H., Hall, R.B., Macke, D.L., Armbrustmacher, T.J., and Brownfield, I.K., 1980, Thorium resources of selected regions in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 824, 32 p. |
| garnet | Unclassified | 79,500 t | — | 79,500 metric tons garnet | Jan 1, 1980 | Staatz and others (1980), Page 17 — Staatz, M.H., Hall, R.B., Macke, D.L., Armbrustmacher, T.J., and Brownfield, I.K., 1980, Thorium resources of selected regions in the United States: U.S. Geological Survey Circular 824, 32 p. |
Sources
- U.S. Geological Survey · published Jun 1, 2019 · retrieved Aug 12, 2026 · archive unavailable: Wayback snapshot 20260427015518 of the ScienceBase item exists but the archive service returned 503 on verification 2026-08-12; recheck on a weekly pass