Background Information Where are natural resources located? Natural resources are useful materials found on and beneath Earth's surface. A variety of natural resources are used every day. Food and water are both natural resources. Other resources include soil, trees, and rocks and minerals. Matérials extracted from mineral resources important to modern technological societies are not uniformly distributed across the planet (e.g., oil in the Middle East, gold in Nevada). Most elements exist in Earth's crust at concentrations too low to be mined, but in specific locations-where geological processes have concentrated them-extraction is economically viable. Concentrations of mineral resources profitable to extract are called mineral deposits. Mineral deposits form when a special set of circumstances happen on or beneath the Earth's surface.