Mining trade show growing

Vegas is hip. It's cool. It's fresh.

But this week, the city cedes its mirror ball to the real life of Nevada's economic party these days: mining.

"Nevada is like the ultralounge of mining. We're the place where it's happening," said Alan Coyner, administrator of the Nevada Division of Minerals. "Come on in. We're open."

Nowhere is that more obvious than at the Las Vegas Convention Center, where trade show MINExpo is hanging out today through Wednesday. The show, held here every four years, is shattering records: Its 850,000 square feet of floor space is up 42 percent from its previous high in 2008. Exhibitor count is up 40 percent, to more than 1,800. And the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said it expects 50,000 attendees, up about 30 percent from 38,000. The authority estimates MINExpo's non­gaming economic impact at $63.7 million this year.

"MINExpo is huge for Nevada," said Moya Phelleps, senior vice president of member services at the National Mining Association. "You do have a very significant mining industry, and it's very important to the state's economy. MINExpo highlights and really brings that to life for people, particularly in Las Vegas, where they don't have the opportunity to visit mines because they're mostly not in this part of the state."

MINExpo comes amid great times for Nevada's mining industry.

Gold is at record prices. Nevada leads the nation in production of barite, a mineral used in oil and gas drilling. Nevada is also the nation's only producer of lithium, used in hybrid car batteries.

The state's specialty clays appear in cosmetics all over the country. Its copper goes to construction sites worldwide. Mines for molybdenum, a mineral used in industrial metals and alloys, are in planning or already producing near Ely and Eureka. Even Clark County's beleaguered gypsum industry, which makes wallboard, is perking up.

"Overall, Nevada's mining industry is healthy for sure," Coyner said. "Demand for raw materials is up significantly."

That's important, because mining, unlike gaming or dry cleaning or many other services, produces wealth that didn't exist until it was pulled from the ground, Coyner said.

Service industries often recirculate wealth that already exists, he said. Nevada's mining jobs also pay well, at $87,900 a year for metals mining, compared with $43,100 for all other industries. Plus, mining is practically rural Nevada's only economic engine.

Industry growth isn't the only factor spiking MINExpo's numbers.

Some of the show's big gains come from natural buying cycles of heavy equipment, Phelleps said.

Ore haulers and electric shovels are now tired, and it's time to replace them. This year's biggest exhibitor, Caterpillar, will show off 345-ton ore trucks and a new locomotive in 53,000 square feet of floor space - about the size of your neighborhood grocery store. The show's not really open to the public, though you can go look if you're willing to pony up the $200 entry fee.

Participation is also up because of an influx of people new to mining.

International attendance has increased about 5 percentage points over 2008, as representatives from countries including Ecuador and Saudi Arabia look at ways to expand their mining sectors. And then there are legions of companies new to the industry, looking to diversify away from softer industries such as defense.

Emil Kopilovich knows slow sectors.

Kopilovich is vice president of PABCO Gypsum, which mines Clark County's major mineral and makes wallboard for buildings. Nevada led the nation in gypsum production in 2010, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, and most of the state's production came from Clark County.

But business plummeted along with construction in Nevada, California, Arizona and Utah - PABCO's main market.

The northeast Las Vegas plant ran at 100 percent of its 1.3 billion-square-foot annual wallboard production capacity from 2004 to 2006. By 2009 and 2010, output had slumped to 50 percent of capacity.

Things are picking up, though, as housing starts to improve. Today, PABCO is running at 70 percent.

"I think we can say housing has bottomed out. Things are slowly improving," Kopilovich said. "We can't predict the rate of improvement with any certainty, but I think the conventional wisdom is it will be gradual because of the depth of the recession."

Slow growth isn't the rule everywhere, though, and that means sustained demand for Nevada's mined commodities. The developing world is embracing modern conveniences, and they need our help to build.

"If three billion people say, 'It would be nice to have a light bulb in my house,' that's a lot of light bulbs. It's a lot of raw material," Coyner said.

Contact reporter Jennifer Robison at jrobison@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4512. Follow @J_Robison1 on Twitter.