The Mineral Baby returns

Last year, every person in the United States needed more than 23 tons of minerals and energy fuels to maintain their standard of living, according to the Mineral Information Institute (MII). “With the life expectancy in the U.S. now averaging 77.9 years, this means that the average American will need to have 3.6 million pounds of resources to be mined to provide the products and materials they will depend upon in their lifetime,” said President Nelson Fugate. “The population of the U.S. is 302 million people, so this means that last year, nearly 7 billion tons of different rocks and minerals had to be mined somewhere to make the things we use in everyday living.” Decreases in construction projects in 2007 caused a reduction of nearly 1,500 lbs. per person in the consumption of mineral and energy resources, the majority of it aggregates and cement. During the last 15 years, the per person consumption of minerals has fluctuated from 45,500 lbs./person/yr. (2003) to 48,427 lbs./person/yr. (1999), but there are 32 million more people in the country and their life expectancy has increase from 76.7 years to 77.9 years. This required the mining of 400 million more tons of resources than the estimated 6.6 billion tons provided in 1999 and nearly three times the amount of mineral and energy resources required to maintain the U.S. standard of living in 1950, MII said. Your comment?