This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Every American born today will use 3.6 million pounds of minerals, metals and fuels. Or, to put it another way, each of us will use 42,719 pounds this year.

All of this comes from Mother Earth (often destructively), and through the hard and often dangerous labor of men and women.

Even mining the potash to fertilize our gardens can be perilous. On Aug. 27, 1963, a methane gas explosion rocked the Cane Creek potash mine under development by Texas Gulf Sulphur Co. west of Moab. Matt Rauhala was standing on the headframe at the top of the mine. The explosion from deep below was strong enough that it blew him through a plywood wind shield.

He survived. But 25 men had been working 3,000 feet below ground.

Rescue crews rushed to the scene and began working in 130-degree temperatures. The state mine inspector didn't hold out much hope. "The situation is very, very grim," he said.

A day after the explosion, rescuers found two survivors: Donald Hanna and Paul McKinney. They and five others had barricaded themselves in a side drift to block out carbon monoxide, but Hanna and McKinney had climbed out to go for help. On the way out they fixed a ruptured air line for their companions.

Many years later, Hanna said, "God saved me, and the rescuers went through pure hell to get to me; you couldn't say enough about them."

Those rescuers tried to reach the five others that day but couldn't. However, they did find eight bodies.

By then, gas, water, debris and equipment failures were plaguing the rescue. Rescuers were lowered into the mine in a two-ton lift bucket. When the bucket stalled for an hour, water seeping from the sides of the shaft filled the bucket and almost drowned one of the men.

Then troubles with the workers' air lines hampered the rescue for much of the second day.

That afternoon, the rescuers started one last big push. Ninety minutes later, the mine company's chief engineer announced, his voice breaking, "Five survivors have been found in the east shaft. The men are walking out of that drift!"

Three hours later, he had to break some families' hearts: The remaining ten miners were dead. Of the 18 dead, some died in the explosion; others of asphyxiation. Three had refused to join those who had survived behind the barricade.

So some waiting families received their loved ones with joy. Others had only grief and loss. One widow, when told husband's body was charred beyond identification, said bitterly, "Maybe next time they will put dog tags on them," and burst into tears.

The explosion became one of the country's top five metal and nonmetal mine disasters since 1940.

As in so many other mine disasters, safety measures were not adequate. Hanna said he hadn't seen a state safety inspector during his 18 months at the mine. John Schear, another survivor, claimed the mine was an unfit place to work with many safety violations. Soon after the explosion, the State Industrial Commission ordered additional ventilation in the mine.

Today, Intrepid Potash recovers the mineral by pumping water into the mine, dissolving the potash, then pumping the brine into evaporation ponds.

But as we know through the news, mining is still dangerous -- something to remember as we consume and consume and consume.

The Pittsburgh Press commented on the potash explosion and other disasters by saying, "... no money considerations can justify the loss of life which has become traditional in the mines--whether the mines are large or small, whatever the product they yield. Fatalities which might have been prevented simply cannot be justified at all, economically, morally, legally or any other way.

"Our need for the riches of the earth, at cheap cost, is not that critical."

Kristen Rogers-Iversen can be reached at kristenri@yahoo.com.

Sources: Ogden Standard-Examiner; Deseret News; "Incredible Tale of Texasgulf Well 7 and Fracture Permeability, Paradox Basin, Utah," by Peter W. Huntoon; Handbook for Methane Control in Mining; Evening Courier (Prescott, AZ); Pittsburgh Press