18 C O AL and MINERAL USE Mining makes possible a wide range of necessary products that sustain our way of life The products of mining are essential not only to meet basic needs but also for higher aspirations a continuously im proving standard of living cleaner environment and societal prosperity security and stability Here are just a few of the many ways coal and minerals beneft people every day A griculture M in er al s a re n ee d ed for our most basic requirement for life food Although most people recog nize that magnesium iron and zinc are im portant for healthy diets they dont often connect minerals with productive f arming Fertilizers made from potash phosphate rock and sulfur are essential to g ro w crops Harvesting and transporting crops to market is achieved by machinery and transportation vehicles made from minerals Pro cessing food takes still more machinery and equipment as does packaging C onstruction and H ousing Minerals are societys building blocks R ock s and miner als are present in nearly ev ery building and structure sky scrapers hospitals bridges factories fast food restaurants and the house in which you live Minerals are commonly used in gypsum wallboard aluminum or galvanized steel gutters copper or stainless steel pipes copper wiring concrete foundations asphalt roof shingles and windows made from glass trona silica sand and feldspar C ommunications T he r e v olution in c on sumer t echnologies f or c ommunications and data ha v e led t o e x citing ne w appli cations f or miner als Copper wiring ceramic insulators steel printing presses gold connect o rs and silicon chips all forms of communication from newspapers to smar t phones to satellites require mineral compo nents A computer typically requires as many as 66 minerals including silicon boron lead indium stron tium barium and phosphorous for the screen calcium carbonate talc clays sulfur and mica for the case silicon for the chips gold copper aluminium steel lithium tungsten chromium titanium silver cobalt nickel germanium tin lead tantalum and zinc for the circuitry and cadmium and lithium for the battery E nergy Coal accounts for about a quar t er of the nations elec tricity generation Over the past f our decades as the US economy has become increasingly dependent on electricity to meet energy demand At the same time air quality has improved with declines in coal power plant emissions of sulfur dioxide nitrogen oxide and particulate matter according to US Environmental Protection Agency EPA data According to the Energy Information Administration EIA coalbased power plants are expected to re main a key source of electricity Meanwhile another product of mining uranium provides an additional 19 percent of electricity generation through nuclear power plants Combined coal and nuclear plants are responsible for nearly 50 percent of the nations elec tricity Liquid fuels also can be produced from coal The pro duction of coaltoliquid CTL tr anspor tation fuels begins with coal as a raw material or feedstock The indirect liquefaction process is proven and alr eady be ing used in other parts of the world and can be a n al ternative to US impor t ed oil