TELL YOUR STORY

When was the last time you told someone how proud you are to be a hardworking miner and how important your industry is to the prosperity of your community, Wyoming, and the USA? Did you tell them what your career, company, and industry have done for your family and community? Did you tell them why the output from your mine is critical to reliable energy or to the everyday products that they depend on for their high standard of living? Did you share the advances your industry has made in reclamation techniques or energy and water efficiency? Have you shared the number of high paying careers that your industry provides and how many upstream and downstream jobs it also supports? Have you shared the extent of royalties and taxes your industry has paid to local, state, and federal governments, supporting countless programs while helping to lower individual income taxes? Or did you let someone else tell them the story of mining?

Recent events in Europe coupled with critical supply shortages have shown how important it is for us to maintain reliable domestically sourced energy supplies, minerals, and heavy manufacturing. Without these core industries, not only do we risk severe supply shortages, but we put significant risk on the freedom and autonomy that defines us as a nation! Many still haven’t “heard” this message and continue to distance themselves from fossil fuels, minerals, and the heavy industries that depend on them.

This great nation was built on the backs of hardworking men and women in the mining industry. The output from our mines fueled the nation’s industrial revolution and provided the raw materials necessary for production of just about everything. Over the last 50 years, as mining and manufacturing have been outsourced more and more to foreign countries, less people know and understand what we do and where our products go. Once that connection is lost, it’s simple for someone to lose the appreciation for our industries and someone can then easily be swayed into believing our businesses are outdated, no longer needed in the US, wasteful, or not attractive places of employment.

Our success is dependent on stakeholders nationwide. People outside our industry approve our projects, consume our products, make policy and tax decisions, create incentive programs, educate our youth, and run our media outlets. If we don’t tell our story, what story are they going to hear from the majority of people in this nation that do not know and understand what we do? It’s easy for someone to ignore a positive message about mining in this detached world of texts, Zoom meetings, podcasts and ‘biased media’. But if that message is made personal, it cannot easily be ignored because it becomes REAL. Travis and the WMA team spend countless hours sharing our message. You have a very positive story to tell, as well. We work hard in industries that are critical to the freedom and success of our nation. Be proud of what you do! When someone asks you what you do or where you work, are you just going to say “I work for a mining company”?

Or, are you going to tell YOUR STORY?

BY: AARON REICHL WMA President Genesis Alkali, VP Technology & Busienss Development