Pub. 5 2015 Issue 2

10 AT THE CENTER OF UTAH INDUSTRY W e don’t often think about how the mining indus- try makes the sports industry possible, but the truth is that without mining, many sports would be in trouble. MakingGreen Lawns, Sand Traps, and Baseball Diamonds Imagine people playing golf, soccer, football, or other out- side sports without a green field. Anytime that field is made of real grass, it has to be fertilized. Fertilizer is made using the potassium from potash, which is one of the first substances in the world to be mined. People have been using potash for about as long as they’ve been farming. In addition to fertilizer, golf courses have traps that add to the golfing challenge, and of course sand traps have to use sand. Sand is mined from beaches, dunes, and ocean and river beds. The playing surface for a baseball or softball field often uses clay. Composites of clay and sand are used to create the path connecting the bases, batter’s box, bullpen, and pitcher’s mound. For any sport played at night, minerals used by the lighting system make it possible to see during a game. The lights on the playing field use metals such as aluminum, copper, steel, and tungsten; gases such as halides, neon, and sodium; and of course glass products. Football Stadiums, Swimming Pools, and Goal Posts Football stadiums are built from many mineral products including steel, concrete, glass, aluminum, and dimension stone. To build a swimming pool, people use products such as concrete and tile. Pool maintenance involves use of silver ions to purify the water. Goal posts for hockey and Lacrosse are made from aluminum, PVC (polyvinyl chloride), and steel. • Steel is made from materials such as iron, molybde- num, and zinc. • Concrete is made from clay, gypsum, limestone, and composites. • Glass or tile is made using feldspar and either silica sand or clay. Feldspar is the world’s most common rock-forming mineral. In fact, feldspar can be found in about 60 percent of the earth’s crust. • Dimension stone is stone that has been selected for its specific characteristics, such as strength, ap - pearance, and durability, and is then quarried into the specific shapes and sizes that are needed. For example, a tile floor made of stone would be an ex - ample of dimension stone. Sports Clothing Bike helmets are made frommaterials such as limestone, which is otherwise known as calcium carbonate, clays, talc, and mica. Hockey helmets are constructed from composite materials that can include carbon fibers. Swim caps use silicone, and so do swim goggles, which have silicone in both the headbands and the nose pieces. Sili- cone is made from silicon and methyl chloride, and silicon is a product of silica (that is, quartz sand) and carbon. Silver in the fabric of sports clothing such as shirts and socks is used to kill bacteria and bad smells. Copper is also sometimes used because it has antibacterial properties. Zip- pers are made of zinc plated with chrome. Reflective tape and shiny clothing both use aluminum to make runners more visible. The shoes for football and soccer both use cleats that give a player traction on the field. The cleats are made of zinc and other metals. To make the leather for the shoes, manufactur- ers use borax, salt, chromium, and sulfur. To stabilize the sole of the shoe, manufacturers use molybdenum and titanium. Ski boots use advanced ceramics. The composites can include materials that are both familiar and more exotic. Chanc - es are you recognize materials such as aluminum oxide, clay, lithium, silica, and maybe silicon carbide or tin oxide, but these boots also use materials with highly technical names that only a chemist or a ceramic engineer is likely to be familiar with, Minerals Used in Sports