en.Wedoany.com Reported - Only a quarter of the United States has been geologically mapped to a level sufficient to support mining exploration, and the proportion is even lower in emerging markets—large areas in Africa, Latin America, and Central Asia lack geological maps or have extremely rudimentary ones, posing a major obstacle to the development of Western mineral supply chains.

The lack of geological maps forces Western mining companies to bear high costs and risks before even encountering corruption or infrastructure shortcomings when entering emerging markets. Mining companies rely heavily on geological maps for drilling operations, which typically account for 40% of project exploration costs. Without maps, companies are forced to resort to "blind" drilling, a process fraught with high risk and staggering costs. For U.S. mining companies, especially large publicly traded firms with risk-averse shareholders, the absence of geological data in emerging markets has become the primary challenge in securing critical mineral supplies.

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