Mining Resources In The Gem State

To understand why mining is important to Idaho, we need to understand why minerals are so important to our everyday lives. In the United States, an average of 40,000 pounds of new minerals must be mined each year for every man, woman and child. It would take more than 33 pickup trucks to haul the mineral needs of just one person every year.

Without minerals there would be no fizz in your soft drink, no fax on your desk, no cars, stereos, video games, airplanes, cameras, cosmetics, lights, heat or indoor plumbing. Idaho provides the nation with one of the widest array of minerals of any state: Gold in central and southern Idaho, silver in the north and southwest, lead and zinc in the north, molybdenum in central Idaho, and phosphate in southeast Idaho.

Fast Facts about Minerals
Used by permission of the National Mining Association

• Mining has touched less than one-quarter of one percent of all the land in the United States.
• A television requires 35 different minerals, and more than 30 minerals are needed to make a computer.
• Processed materials of mineral origin account for more than 5 percent of U.S. gross domestic product.
• Minerals and materials processed from minerals account for exports worth as much as $36 billion per year.
• Only 3 million acres of public land, about the size of a county in Nevada, have gone into private ownership from mining, compared to 94 million acres granted to railroads and 288 million acres as agricultural homesteads.
• $150 billion is spent each year on pollution abatement and control to keep our environment clean.
• More than 320,000 people work directly in mining throughout the United States. Employment in industries that support mining, including manufacturing, engineering, environmental and geological consultants, accounts for nearly 5 million jobs.
• The average miner makes $45,270 per year in salary, not including overtime, bonuses and benefits.