Pub. 6 2016 Issue 3

21 MINING FOCUS MINING AND CHRISTMAS continued on page 22 Oh, and don’t forget the transporting of those gifts to your home. After all, even Santa’s sleigh is made of mined materials! And it doesn’t stop there. We love to decorate our homes for the holidays, and Christmas lights and some kinds of ribbon and ornaments also use materials that were mined. Where do manufacturers get the minerals and metals they need to produce the items we consume? The short answer is frommines. The larger question is, where are mines located? And the answer to that is both simple and complicated. It’s simple because mines can be located only where valuable mineral deposits exist. And that is pretty rare. In fact, In a 1999 report, the National Research Council of the National Academy of Sciences recognized just how rare valuablemineral deposits are: “Only a very small portion of Earth’s continental crust (less than 0.01%) contains economically viable mineral deposits. Thus, mines can only be located in those few places where economically viable deposits were formed and discovered.” Where mines are located is complicated, on the other hand, because not only do we need to have viable mineral deposits, but we also must be able to mine the materials we need safely and responsibly. We are very fortunate in the United States, and here in Utah, to be blessed with a very rich mineral endowment. Even more importantly, we have some of the safest and most environmentally sustainable mines in the world. Not only is today’s mining industry regulated by comprehensive safety and environmental laws and regulations, Utah’s miners routinely go above and beyond what is required to make sure you have the materials needed tomake your life possible while protecting our environment. Let’s also think about where your electronic gifts are manufactured. If we are going to revitalize U.S. manufacturing and produce goods here at home, wemust also responsibly utilize our own mineral resources as the feedstock for those manufacturers. Relying on foreign sources of minerals and metals is just as dangerous, if not more, as relying on foreign countries for our energy. Unfortunately, despite our mineral wealth, we are becoming more and more reliant on other countries for the raw materials we need. In fact, in 2015 the U.S. was 100 percent reliant on foreign sources for nineteen important minerals and metals, and more than 50 percent dependent for another twenty-two. Oh, and don’t forget the transporting of those gifts to your home. After all, even Santa’s sleigh is made of mined materials! And it doesn’t stop there. We love to decorate our homes for the holidays, and Christmas lights and some kinds of ribbon and ornaments also use materials that were mined.