A wide variety of nonrenewable commodities of economic interest to mining and oil companies occurs in northern Yukon Territory and western District of Mackenzie. They range from coal, iron, uranium, lead and zinc in the mountainous southern part of the area, to oil and gas in the Eagle Plain, placer gold in the Yukon Coastal Lowland, construction materials in the Northern Interior Platform, and oil and gas in the Mackenzie Delta and the continental shelf of southern Beaufort Sea. Of singular importance are the enormous tonnages of phosphatic iron in the northwestern Mackenzie Mountains, the very large tonnages of subbituminous to high volatile bituminous coal nearby in the Bonnet Plume Basin, and the numerous discoveries of oil and gas on the continental shelf. Although the resource potential of many of these commodities is reasonably well known, only the construction materials have been exploited commercially. The region remains a storehouse of economic minerals and hydrocarbons for Canada's future.