Lesson 1.1: Do We Really Need Mining Anymore?

Lesson 1.1: Do We Really Need Mining Anymore?

When I have the opportunity to speak with groups of prospective students or community groups, I enjoy asking a simple question to start the discussion:

When you hear the word mining, do you think past, present, or future? That is to say, is mining an activity that was important in the past, but not so much today, or is it an activity that is currently of some importance, but is becoming less and less important, or is mining an activity of importance now, and which will continue to be important into the future? Let’s see a show of hands… how many of you think past? How many of you think present? How many of you think future when you hear the word mining?

Inevitably, the outcome of this informal survey is the same year after year and group after group! Let’s say we have a hundred prospective students and perhaps some parents in the room as well. Approximately 85 to 90 will raise their hands for past, 5 to 10 for present, and 0 to 5 for future.

This predictable outcome begs for a few follow-up questions, which I am only too happy to ask! OK, let's repeat these three questions, but instead of the word mining, let’s substitute in some other words: food… pharmaceuticals… technology, e.g. solar cells or iPhones… Everyone, i.e., 100% of the audience will respond with future to all of my questions. I need to stop after about the third word because I’ve made my point, and moreover, the audience begins to question my sanity -- after all, what does food have to do with mining!!!

Let’s take a closer look, and let’s start with food. Modern agriculture is heavily dependent on large quantities of mined materials to meet the food needs of an expanding global population. Potash is one of the critical ones and is used to produce fertilizer for crop production and to a lesser extent in feed for livestock. Globally, more than 40 million tons of potash are mined each year, and of that, approximately 2% is mined in the United States. Phosphate is another mined commodity used in food production for fertilizer and feedstock; and of the 260 million tons mined globally, more than 10% is mined in the U.S., Of course, these two commodities, potassium and potash, have other important commercial uses in addition to supporting food production. If for no other reason, mining will be an essential future activity to support agricultural production! No doubt, you already know or are beginning to suspect that there are many, many other needs for mining beyond food production.

There are obvious uses:

• aluminum to make beer cans
• limestone and clay to make cement for producing concrete
• iron for makings steel
• granite for countertops or other architectural applications
• silica sand used as a proppant in fracking operations

And there are the not-so-obvious uses:

• antimony, used in flame retardants
• bismuth, used in medicines
• clay, used to improve the writing texture of paper
• calcite, to make paper a brighter white
• limestone, finely crushed and used (50%) in plastic pipe
• rare earths, used in computers
• titanium, used for sports equipment
• trona, used to make glass
• vermiculite, used in horticulture
• zeolites used for water purification

In the interest of time, let me make a very long story short!

Within the U.S., we have more than 13,000 mines, which mine approximately 85 minerals each year, including the ones listed in the foregoing example. And most of the minerals, including the ones in the list, are used for several purposes. Moreover, mining contributes nearly 2.5 trillion dollars to the U.S. economy. This is about 15% of the U.S. economy; and globally, mining contributes nearly 25% to the world economy!

There was a bumper sticker that came out several years ago: If it can’t be grown, it has to be mined!

Indeed, mined commodities are ubiquitous in modern society, and mining to recover them from the earth’s crust is essential to modern society.

Up to this point, we’ve focused on the nonfuel minerals. We’ve learned about the importance of mining to the national and global economies, the number of mines in the U.S., and the uses for many common and not so common mined commodities. We’ll take a look at where these commodities are mined in Lesson 1.3. Before moving on to this topic, we should look at fuels, and specifically coal and uranium. They constitute another important component of the mining industry, and we'll look at them in the next lesson.