In a new infographic, the Minerals Education Coalition illustrates that every year 40,641 pounds of new minerals must be provided for every person in the United States to make the things we use daily, including our nation’s infrastructure.
Based on 2017 production, 656 pounds of cement, 292 pounds of iron ore, 46 pounds of aluminum, 12 pounds of copper, and 5 pounds of zinc will be used to make roads, bridges, buildings, electrical and electronic parts, plumbing, batteries, and transportation the average American will rely on this year.
Minerals and metals like these form the foundation of our nation’s vital infrastructure systems and are the essential building blocks of important alloys in a dizzying array of products.
Rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure – much less keeping it up – takes vast amounts of minerals and metals. With the right policies in place, those minerals and metals can come from American mines.
