Jory is a processor on the graphite purification line I own outside Palmer, Alaska. He’s 41. He feeds the floatation cells 10 hours a shift, 6 days a week, and his lungs are filling with the respirable crystalline silica the line throws at him. The respirator the MSHA standard would require against that dust costs $87. The hood that would clear it at the source costs $14,000 per station. I’ve kept both. The anode graphite in your phone, your laptop, your electric vehicle. It came through Jory’s station at a margin that required the dust to stay where it fell. God willing, the cell runs clean.
After 8 years on the cell, Jory’s lungs hold approximately 41 grams of respirable crystalline silica — the dose the NIOSH lifetime guideline would call the floor of the unacceptable. Jory has coughed up a gray sputum every morning for 2 years. He calls it mine dust. The pulmonologist in Anchorage calls it silicosis and signs the referral for the federal black lung program. I have not opened the referral.
Governor Dunleavy writes in Fox News this week that Alaska holds 57 of the 60 most critical minerals and that the Graphite Creek reserve could supply the nation’s graphite for a century. He calls it a strategic imperative. He wants American dominance over China. He’s right about the reserve. He hasn’t priced the body that purifies the mineral his bill would set loose. The arithmetic is my department.
Here is what Jory’s air costs.
The ventilation compliance the standard requires: hood, filter cartridges, annual medical monitoring, a 12% reduction in feed rate to hold the dust within the exposure limit. $192 a shift. Jory’s margin contribution per shift: $3,400. The ventilation is 5.6% of what Jory earns me. I don’t spend it. 260 shifts a year. 6 years. I have saved $299,520. Jory has lost 31% of his lung capacity. You’re reading the math the way I read it now.
Pearl runs the crusher upstream of Jory’s station. She’s 54. Same dust, one stage earlier, no enclosure, same owner. The crusher throws particles at 200 feet per second when the feed catches. The face shield the standard requires costs $38. The face shield sits on the same shelf as the respirator. I keep one shelf of refusals per facility. It’s efficient.
Here is what $0.08 a pound buys. Here is what it doesn’t.
Jory’s flotation cell produces 22 tons of graphite concentrate a shift. The concentrate sells for $1,180 a ton after processing. Jory’s wage: $124 a shift. The cabin on Kachemak Bay has a view and a woodstove. Jory has not been invited.
When a government names a mineral critical, it does two things. It tells the market the price will rise. And it tells men like me the line will run longer. The word “critical” never touches the worker. It touches the supply chain. Jory is supply chain. The graphite is critical. Jory is not.
You see the distinction the bill draws? The mineral has a strategic value Jory will never hold. Jory has a shift value the mineral will never need. One is measured in decades of national security. The other is measured in the years his lungs will hold. The bill prices one. I price the other. Neither of us prices both.
The arithmetic is older than the Republic. The parable of the talents tells it plain — Matthew 25, the master who gave three servants his property before a long absence. Two invested and were praised. The third buried his master’s talent in the ground and was cast into outer darkness. The master said to him on his return: “Thou oughtest therefore to have put my money to the exchangers, and then at my coming I should have received mine own with usury.” The third servant is the regulator. The regulator buried the master’s mineral under a permitting schedule and an air-quality permit and a wage floor. I am not the regulator. I multiplied. The cell runs.
“And in the same house remain, eating and drinking such things as they give: for the laborer is worthy of his hire.” — Luke 10:7
Jory is worthy of his hire. His hire is $124 a shift, minus the air. Luke priced the principle. I price the line. The principle and the line have never agreed.
I’ve heard the climate argument. The anode is supposed to retire the combustion engine. I haven’t read past the press release. I’ve heard the labor argument. The anode is supposed to be a clean-energy job. I haven’t priced when Jory stops coughing. The cabin is on the Kachemak. The view is good. The cell runs on its schedule, not mine, and I have scheduled nothing.
Governor Dunleavy projects Graphite Creek will supply the nation for a century. I’m one buyer. If his projections hold, I’ll need three purification lines by 2036. The ventilation bid for line two is in a folder on my desk. I’ve been meaning to look at it. The ore ships Monday.
Sterling A. Varice holds the Hayek-Friedman Chair and serves as Dean of Instruction at Warden University’s College of Business and Economics in Richmond, Virginia. He is the author of three textbooks: Divine Mandates for Labor Utilization, Social Obligations for Profit Maximization, and Calibrated Deprivation: A Manager’s Guide to Employee Motivation.