What are minerals used for?
by Carl Ege The importance of minerals in everyday life is hardly recognized by the vast majority of people. According to the U.S. Bureau of Mines, the average person consumes or uses 40,000 pounds of minerals every year. Over the course of a lifetime, an individual will use more than 1,050 pounds of lead, 1,050 pounds of zinc, 1,750 pounds of copper, 4,550 pounds of aluminum, 91,000 pounds of iron and steel, 360,500 pounds of coal, and one million pounds of industrial minerals such as limestone, clay, and gravel. To help illustrate how important minerals are to us, perhaps a trip through a normal working day of a geologist will better explain our reliance on minerals.
