"IN ONE DAY"

In order to maintain our standard of living, every day:

18,000,000 tons of raw material must be mined, cut or harvested to meet the demands of U.S. citizens (about 150 pounds for every man, woman and child);

640 acres (one square mile) of carpeting is woven using barite and calcium carbonate (limestone);

9,700,000 square feet of plate and window glass (about 223 acres) are used, enough to cover 200 football fields, using silica sand and trona;

2,750 acres of pavement are laid - four times as much surface area as is mined - enough concrete and asphalt to make a bicycle path 7 feet wide from coast to coast using sand, gravel, stone aggregate, and limestone;

94,000,000 eraser tipped pencils are purchased (enough erasers to correct all mistakes from 1,500 miles of notebook paper - about 129 acres of "goofs') using graphite, kaolin, pumice, copper and zinc;

426 bushels of paper clips (35,000,000) are purchased. Seven million are actually used, 8-9 million are lost and almost 5 million are twisted up by nervous fingers during telephone conversations, all using iron, clay, limestone, trona and zinc;

164 square miles of newsprint is used to print 62.5 million newspapers (enough to line a bird cage 12 miles wide and 13 miles long) using trona and kaolin;

400 acres of asphalt roofing are nailed down, utilizing silica, borate, limestone, trona, feldspar, talc, and silica sand;

187,000 tons of cement are mixed (enough to construct a four foot wide sidewalk from coast to coast) using limestone, sand, gravel, and crushed stone aggregate;

36,000,000 light bulbs are purchased, all made from tungsten, trona, silica sand, copper and aluminum;

10 tons of colored gravel is purchased for aquariums;

80 pounds of gold are used to fill 500,000 dental cavities;

50,000 pounds of toothpaste (2.5 million tubes) are used (enough to fill a small jet liner) requiring calcium carbonate, zeolites, trona, clays, silica and fluorite.

1,000,000 photographs are snapped (more than 29 acres of wallet sized photos) using silver and iodine.

"ALL, JUST IN ONE DAY" WHO SAYS WE DO NOT NEED MINERALS!!

Adapted from the April 1996, Blasters Newsletter.

Discuss your mineral property appraisal, mining business valuation, or other mineral industry related concerns with Mineral Business Appraisal:
Michael R. Cartwright  michael@minval.com
Five Claret Court, Reno, NV  89512-4744
Tel/Fax: 775-322-9028

Return to Mineral Business Appraisal Home page

Back to Common Minerals & Their Uses
Mineral Appraisal Client Education Information

Next to Industrial Minerals Uses

Go to Mineral Business Appraisal Table of Contents