Pub. 5 2015 Issue 1

13 MINING FOCUS ` Civil Engineering Structural Engineering Land Survey & Volume Determinations 3D Documentation & Structural Analysis Seismic Analysis Evaporation Pond Design Grading & Drainage Analysis Providing Professional Engineering and Surveying for www.mcneilengineering.com Scanning over 8610 South Sandy Parkway, Suite 200 Sandy, UT 84070 Laser Scanning 30 years * 801-255-7700 was quick and inexpensive; a tenth of what plaster walls cost. Gypsum board made it possible for fewer people to construct buildings faster and for less money. Using gypsum board was soon viewed as the patriotic building choice. By 1945, the military had used 2.5 billion square feet of gypsum board to construct military buildings at home and abroad, and gypsum board had become a dominant U.S. building material. By 1955, half the homes built used gypsum wall board. The other half used gypsum lath and plaster. Improved gypsum board was used during the 1960s and 1970s as part of the construction materials for high-rise buildings such as the 100-story John Hancock Center and the 110-story Sears Tower (which was later renamed the Willis Tower). The next series of innovations, which took place in the 1990s, used synthetic by-product gypsum as a key ingredient in specialized building products. Drywall today is made from a composite plaster between two sheets of gypsum-laced paper. The resulting sandwich is then fired in an oven at about 500 degrees Fahrenheit. In - novation is still taking place as the needs of the construction industry change. For example, the website for MIT Technol - ogy Review posted an online story by Katherine Bourzac on February 4, 2010 about how researchers are creating drywall building materials that have phase-change polymer capsules in them to absorb heat when the sun is up and release that heat at night. It is essentially a passive-cooling system that cools rooms the same way ice cubes cool a glass of water. Whatever you choose to call it, drywall is an important material in the construction industry, and we have it thanks to the mining industry. Although gypsum has been around for thousands of years, the potential applications and uses are still unfolding. Gypsum and the mining industry will continue to play an important role in our lives for generations to come. X The term “drywall” is a reference to the fact that, unlike plaster, installing drywall doesn’t require th e use of water. Production of the original board was discontinued less than a year later.