Mineral Resources of the Coastal Plain

The Coastal Plain region of the Northeast has very few mineral producing localities. Gypsum and magnesium compounds are the extent of the current mineral production, and kaolin was produced in the past in Maryland. The Coastal Plain, made entirely of a wedge of loose sediments (not cemented or compacted sufficiently to have become sedimentary rock), does not have the abundance of valuable minerals and ores found in igneous and metamorphic rocks, nor the proper conditions to create such minerals. Unlike the other regions, minerals are concentrated in the Coastal Plain only through density separation by streams and wave action along the shoreline.