Mining and Community Economic Growth

The rapid expansion of oil and gas extraction in large parts of the Marcellus fields in the Appalachian Basin and the Bakken fields in the Williston Basin of the Dakotas and Montana has reignited debate over the role of natural resource extraction as a rural economic growth strategy. While the popular media has focused on hydraulic fracturing and natural gas and oil production, there has been significant interest in silicon sand mining in western Wisconsin and southeastern Minnesota. This “frack sand” is used in oil and gas hydraulic fracturing activity. In this study we explore the relationship between non-oil and gas mining (NAICS 212) activities and economic growth for nonmetropolitan U.S. counties for the period 2000 to 2007. We find robust results suggesting that non-oil and gas mining is associated with lower population growth, and a positive impact on per capita income, but has no impact on employment growth.