Poulton Discusses Arizona Becoming The 'Silicon Valley Of Mining'

In a recent Q&A with AZ Big Media, MGE Professor Emerita Mary Poulton discussed how the University of Arizona's Lowell Institute for Mineral Resources is helping Arizona become the "Silicon Valley of mining." Poulton described the Institute's mission to advance responsible mining practices, educate students and stakeholders on the importance of mineral resources, and encourage a steady pipeline of mining employees. The following Q&A is excerpted from the article:

AB: Why is it important to understand the value of locally mined mineral resources and innovations in mining?

MP: All of the advances that will drive Arizona and the region’s economies require more and more materials that are responsibly produced and managed – and those materials have only one source – the rocks and minerals on this planet. This beautiful planet is made up of 92 naturally occurring elements. Our bodies are made of 11 key elements; 99% of the rocks in the earth’s crust are made of eight elements. But your cell phone needs about 62 elements. Everything we are, everything we grow, and everything we make is sourced from the elements that exist on the planet. We aren’t running out of anything, but with a growing population and growing affluence, how we responsibly source and use these materials is one of our greatest challenges.

AB: How does that impact us in Arizona?

MP: We have to extract mineral resources where nature has placed them rather than where it is convenient for us to mine. Arizona happens to be one of the few places on the planet where nature has concentrated great amounts of copper near the earth’s surface. The size of the copper deposits in Arizona dwarfs many of the other copper deposits around the world. Arizona produces over 60% of the U.S. copper supply. We have been mining many of these deposits for a century but have barely tapped their full potential. And our latest knowledge of the formation of these deposits has led to new discoveries. Copper is one of the most important metals for technology, renewable energy, and electric vehicles. Server farms for our cloud-based applications use huge amounts of copper. Electric vehicles contain more copper than conventional cars. And wind energy requires more copper per unit of electricity generated than coal. In addition, the copper deposits in Arizona also contain critical minerals like molybdenum, rhenium, yttrium and many more. And that is just copper – we are leaders in the production of many mineral products.