NAICS 2022
21
Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction
Analysis
NAICS 21 is the 2022 sector for mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction. Census lists 640 example activities under it in the official index.
County Business Patterns counts 23,360 US establishments in this code in 2023, employing 553,036 people at an average annual payroll of $115,081 per employee (90th percentile of national industries). 49% of the establishments have fewer than five employees, which is close to the national mix.
Across its national industries Census lists 640 index entries; typical ones are crude petroleum from oil sand, butane, natural, mining, bituminous coal, lignite, or anthracite beneficiating… and bituminous coal or anthracite underground mine site….
Between 2018 and 2023 the number of establishments fell 9% and employment fell 9%. The 2018 count used NAICS 2017, so part of a large move can come from codes being redefined rather than from businesses opening or closing.
Its goods appear in 68 statistical lines of the US tariff schedule, mostly under headings 2711 (petroleum gases and other gaseous hydrocarbons), 2516 (granite, porphyry, basalt, sandstone and other monumental…) and 2601 (iron ores and concentrates, including roasted iron pyrites). That link is how import data is matched to domestic producers, for example in trade-remedy cases.
It splits into 3 more detailed codes. The largest by establishments is 213 (Support Activities for Mining) with 12,034.
Official definition
The Sector as a Whole
The Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector comprises establishments that extract naturally occurring mineral solids, such as coal and ores; liquid minerals, such as crude petroleum; and gases, such as natural gas. The term "mining" is used in the broad sense to include quarrying, well operations, beneficiating (e.g., crushing, screening, washing, and flotation), and other preparation customarily performed at the mine site, or as a part of mining activity.
The Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector distinguishes two basic activities: mine operation and mining support activities. Mine operation includes establishments operating mines, quarries, or oil and gas wells on their own account or for others on a contract or fee basis. Mining support activities include establishments that perform exploration (except geophysical surveying and mapping) on a contract or fee basis and/or other mining services on a contract or fee basis (except mine site preparation, construction, and transportation activities).
Establishments in the Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction sector are grouped and classified according to the natural resource mined or to be mined. Industries include establishments that develop and/or operate the mine site, extract the natural resources, beneficiate (i.e., prepare) the mineral mined, or provide mining support activities. Beneficiation is the process whereby the extracted material is reduced to particles that can be separated into mineral and waste, the former suitable for further processing or direct use. The operations that take place in beneficiation are primarily mechanical, such as grinding, washing, magnetic separation, and centrifugal separation. In contrast, manufacturing operations primarily use chemical and electrochemical processes, such as electrolysis and distillation. However, some treatments, such as heat treatments, take place in both the beneficiation and the manufacturing (i.e., smelting/refining) stages. The range of preparation activities varies by mineral and the purity of any given ore deposit. While some minerals, such as petroleum and natural gas, require little or no preparation, others are washed and screened, while yet others, such as gold and silver, can be transformed into bullion before leaving the mine site.
Mining, beneficiating, and manufacturing activities often occur in a single location. Separate receipts will be collected for these activities whenever possible. When receipts cannot be broken out between mining and manufacturing, establishments that mine or quarry nonmetallic minerals, and then beneficiate the nonmetallic minerals into more finished manufactured products are classified based on the primary activity of the establishment. A mine that manufactures a small amount of finished products will be classified in Sector 21, Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction. An establishment that mines whose primary output is a more finished manufactured product will be classified in Sector 31-33, Manufacturing.
Source: US Census Bureau, NAICS 2022 Manual.
Index entries (640)
- Crude petroleum from oil sand
- Butane, natural, mining
- Bituminous coal, lignite, or anthracite beneficiating (e.g., cleaning, crushing, screening, washing, sizing)
- Bituminous coal or anthracite underground mine site development for own account
- Agglomerates, iron ore, beneficiating
- Bullion, gold, produced at the mine
- Blende (zinc) mining and/or beneficiating
- Antimony concentrates beneficiating
- Argillite mining or quarrying
- Agricultural limestone mining and/or beneficiating
- Diorite crushed and broken stone mining and/or beneficiating
- Basalt crushed and broken stone mining and/or beneficiating
- Common sand quarrying and/or beneficiating
- Abrasive sand quarrying and/or beneficiating
- Andalusite mining and/or beneficiating
- Abrasive stones (e.g., emery, grindstones, hones, pumice) mining and/or beneficiating
- Directional drilling of oil and gas wells on a contract basis
- Acidizing oil and gas field wells on a contract basis
- Anthracite mine tunneling on a contract basis
- Blasting services, metal mining, on a contract basis
- Blasting services, nonmetallic minerals mining (except fuels) on a contract basis