Day: April 27, 2021

With the FDA’s issuance of an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for multiple COVID-19 vaccines, and vaccines becoming more widely available, many U.S. employers, eager to safely transition employees back to work or transition workplaces back to normal, are considering implementing vaccine recommendations or mandates in the workplace. The fluidity of the pandemic has yielded yet another decision point for employers – can employees be required to obtain a COVID-19 vaccine as a condition of employment?

During World War I, Lieutenant Ernest Tribe of the British Royal Engineers noticed that conventional pipe joints tended to fail at critical times, putting his soldiers in danger. To solve these problems, he devised the grooved pipe coupling. When he returned home in 1919, he filed, in the United States, Great Britain, Canada, and other countries, a patent for a “Pipe Joint,” or an early version of the Victaulic coupling, which is the foundation upon which Victaulic was founded.

Utah is known for its copper mining. But fewer people know about copper’s potential role as an effective antimicrobial against health threats that include the following:
Cholera
Coronaviruses that include COVID-19
MRSA
Norovirus
Virulent strains of E-coli

Our very first mine was a copper mine on the banks of the Rio Tinto river in Andalusia, Spain – bought in 1873 by a British-European investor group led by Scottish entrepreneur Hugh Matheson.

Minerals provide the raw materials required for nearly every industry and consumer product, feeding our manufacturing, defense, medical and energy supply chains. They inspire the innovation of new technologies, and are vital to our national security. They propel our economy and enable America to compete globally.

In 2020, the U.S. learned to value many things no one ever expected to lose: full shelves in the grocery store, going to sporting and cultural events, travel and social events. Zoom became a necessity for work, worship and catching up with friends. In short, the high-tech products that made social distancing bearable and kept the restaurant industry afloat through online orders were something we took for granted in the same way we used to not-think about toilet paper. You know you don’t want to live without it, but you don’t think you’ll ever have to.

Tell us a little about the company.
We are based in Denver, and we have operations across the western United States. Our flagship operation is the White Mesa Mill in San Juan County, Utah, a few miles south of Blanding. The White Mesa Mill is the focus for our company, as we are in the process of turning it into America’s clean energy and critical mineral hub through our uranium, rare earths, vanadium and recycling activities. Let me explain.

2019 UTAH MINING INDUSTRY SUMMARY
The estimated combined value of Utah’s extractive resource production in 2019 totaled $6.5 billion, including production of metals and industrial minerals ($3.5 billion), natural gas ($760 million), crude oil ($1.8 billion), and coal ($480 million) (figure 1). Utah’s diverse mining industry accounted for $3.9 billion (61%) of total extractive resource production, an increase of $92 million (2.4%) from 2018, but 26% lower than peak values reached in 2011 ($5.3 billion, nominal dollars). Mining activities in Utah currently produce base metals, precious metals, industrial minerals, and coal (figure 2).

“Unprecedented” is a word that got a real workout in 2020, but the Covid pandemic truly created unprecedented challenges to public health, the world economy, and, of course, the mining industry. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Utah Mining Association (UMA) has worked tirelessly to provide input and guidance to various government Covid response committees, advocate for critical infrastructure industry designations and exemptions, advocate for royalty and other financial relief, ensure public health, safety, and testing protocols were consistent and appropriate for heavy industry operations, and much, much more.