The estimated 2001 value of minerals produced in North Carolina was essentially unchanged from that of 2000, remaining at $744 million. The state's leading mineral commodities remained crushed stone and phosphate rock. According to preliminary figures, crushed stone was valued at $485 million (about $7 million more than in 2000). Production was estimated at 68.4 million metric tons. Phosphate rock, in Beaufort County, and lithium minerals, mined in the Kings Mountain area of Gaston and Cleveland counties, were the next most valuable mineral commodities mined. North Carolina ranked 1st in the production of common clay, feldspar, crude mica, and pyrophyllite; 2nd in olivine lithium; 3rd in phosphate rock; 5th in kaolin; and 8th in industrial sand and gravel and crushed stone. Clay production amounted to 2.43 million metric tons, valued at $18.6 million. Two categories of clay, common clay, and shale and kaolin, were produced, the kaolin as a byproduct of feldspar and mica operations in Avery and Cleveland counties. Dimension stone production was 40,000 metric tons (valued at $16 million).