Courtesy of the National Mining Association http://www.nma.org/statistics/fast_facts.asp

U.S. Demand:

• Every American uses an average of 40,000 pounds of newly mined materials each year.
• Telephones are made from as many as 42 different minerals, including aluminum, beryllium, coal, copper, gold, iron, limestone, silica, silver, talc and wollastonite. Without boron, copper, gold and quartz, your digital alarm clock would not work.
• A television requires 35 different minerals, and more than 30 minerals are needed to make a computer.
• The construction industry accounts for approximately 51 percent of US copper demand.
• Silver's largest market use is for industrial applications, particularly as an electrical connector. Jewelry is the second largest use of silver.
• The Toyota Prius plug-in-hybrid requires about 50 pounds of rare earth metals for its motor and battery.

U.S. Mineral Production:

• The United States produced about 6 percent of the world's nonfuel nonferrous minerals in 2010.
• Processed materials of mineral origin account for about 4 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.
• The United States is the world's third-largest producer of gold, which in addition to jewelry, is used to make computer circuitry.
• America's copper mines rank third to Chile and Peru in production.
• The United States is the world's leading producer of beryllium, soda ash and sulphur.

U.S. Minerals Mining Employment:

• The National Mining Association estimates that in the next 5-10 years, the mining industry will need approximately 55,000 new miners across the U.S. to meet demand and to replace retiring mine employees. In addition, according to the Society for Mining Metallurgy & Exploration, at least 300 new mining and minerals engineering graduates are needed annually to keep up with projected growth.
• Nearly 500,000 people work directly in mining throughout the United States. Employment in industries that support mining, including manufacturing, engineer, environmental and geological consultants, accounts for nearly 1.8 million jobs.
• The average miner makes $64,000 per year in salary, not including overtime, bonuses and benefits.
• U.S. metal/nonmetal miners report 3.2 non-fatal injuries per 100 workers in 2009, a lower rate of occupational injuries than agriculture, forestry & fishing, construction, manufacturing, transportation, and retail trade.

U.S. Minerals Mining Economic Impact:

• In 2008, the mining industry paid approximately $45 billion in taxes, royalties and fees to federal, state and local governments combined. Nearly $107 billion was paid to mining industry employees in direct and indirect wages and benefits.
• The total direct and indirect impact of U.S. mining is valued at $1.9 trillion - mining produced $80 billion of finished mineral, metal and fuel products that were then transformed by consumer industries into goods creating an additional $1.8 trillion in value added.
• According to U.S. Geological Survey analysis, the value added to U.S. GDP by major industries that consume processed mineral materials was an estimated $2.1 trillion in 2010, 14 percent of U.S. GDP.
• Minerals and materials processed from minerals account for exports worth as much as $87 billion per year (USGS).

U.S. Minerals and the Environment:

• Mining has touched less than one-half of one percent of all the land in the United States.
• Only 3 million acres of public land have gone into private ownership from mining, while 94 million acres have been granted to railroads and 288 million acres privatized as agricultural homesteads (BLM).
• Since 1978, more than 2.6 million acres of mined lands have been restored to their original or better condition, as well as more than 285,000 acres of coal mines abandoned long ago.