California, borax

Processing at Sead.es Lake, California, by North American Chemical is similar to that of Texas brines. Brine is cooled to 16°C to remove borax crystals, then cooled to 4°C which precipitates Glauber s salt. This salt is then separated from its mother Hquor, melted in multi-effect vacuum crystallizers to form anhydrous sodium sulfate, and dried. Both processes produce crystals that are 99.3—99.7% pure (9). 

Production from sodium borate ores takes place in the United States, Turkey, and Argentina. AH U.S. production based on sodium borate ores is from the United States Borax Chemical Corp. in Boron, California. Turkish mining of tincal takes place at Kirka. This operation is under the control of the Turkish government and its representative, Etibank. Argentine production is carried out at Tincalayu, primarily by Boroquimica Samicaf. 

North American Chemical Co. produces borax pentahydrate and decahydrate from Seades Lake brines in both Trona and West End, California (see Chemicals frombrines). The 88 km dry lake consists of two brine layers, the analyses of which are given in Table 11. Two distinct procedures are used for the processing of upper and lower lake brines. Borax is produced in Trona from upper lake brines by an evaporative procedure involving the crystallization of potash and several other salts prior to borax crystallization as the pentahydrate (104). A carbonation process is used in West End, California to derive borate values from lower lake brines (105). Raw lower stmcture brine is carbonated to produce sodium bicarbonate, which is calcined and recrystallized as sodium carbonate monohydrate. The borate-rich filtrate is neutralized with lake brine and refrigerated to crystallize borax. 

Fig. 6. Flow sheet for the production of anhydrous borax (standard and fines) at Seades Lake, Trona, California (105).

U.S. Borax Research Corp., Anaheim, California, markets several borate esters under the trademark BORESTER. These include triethanolamine borate (BORESTER 20), tricresyl borate (m- and p-isomers) (BORESTER 8), and the biborate (4) (BORESTER 7). Whereas the chemical name for (4) is given in Table 1, it is commonly referred to as trihexylene glycol biborate [26545-48-2] and is prepared by the reaction of two moles of boric acid and three moles of hexylene glycol. 

A third source of brine is found underground. Underground brines ate primarily the result of ancient terminal lakes that have dried up and left brine entrained in their salt beds. These deposits may be completely underground or start at the surface. Some of these beds ate hundreds of meters thick. The salt bed at the Salat de Atacama in Chile is over 300 m thick. Its bed is impregnated with brine that is being pumped to solar ponds and serves as feedstock to produce lithium chloride, potassium chloride, and magnesium chloride. Seades Lake in California is a similar ancient terminal lake. Brine from its deposit is processed to recover soda ash, borax, sodium sulfate, potassium chloride, and potassium sulfate. 

Boron is mined as borax and kernite, Na2B407-xH20, with x = 10 and 4, respectively. Large deposits from ancient hot springs are found in volcanic regions, such as the Mojave Desert region of California. In the extraction process, the ore is converted into boron oxide with acid and then reduced with magnesium to an impure brown, amorphous form of boron ... 

The United States and Turkey are the world s largest producers of boron.1 Economically important sources are from the ores rasorite (kernite) and tincal, which are both found in the Mojave Desert of California, with borax being the most important source there. The famous 20-Mule-Team Borax, now a part of chemistry folklore, originates from the time when teams of 20 mules used to haul colemanite from Furnace Creek in Death Valley 166 miles south to Mojave. Elemental boron in its impure form can be obtained by the reduction of the oxide B203 by magnesium, and in the pure form by the reduction of BC13 by hydrogen on hot filaments.1... 

Although boron ranks 48th among the elements in abundance, it is not found uncombined. The most common minerals containing boron are the tetraborates of sodium or calcium. Borax, Na2B407 10H2O, is the most important source of boron, and large deposits of borax are found in southern California, from which about three-fourths of the world demand is obtained. 

Birmingham DJ, Key AIM Preliminary Survey, US Borax Plant, Boron California (Feb 20,1963). Occup Health Research Training Facility, Div of Occup Health, Public Health Service, US Department of Health, Education Welfare, Cincinnati, OH, 1963... 

Borax in California. The great deposits of borax and other soluble salts in San Bernardino County, California, were discovered by Dennis Searle and E. M. Skillings on February 14, 1873. In the following year Arthur Robottom of London explored the borax regions of Nevada and California, travelled with a mule team over a very rough country at the rate of from 12 to 14 miles per day, and arrived at length. .. at the... 

Dingley, W F., The borax mdustiy m Southern California, Chem Educ, ... 

Dennis Searle and E. M. Skillings discover the borax deposits of California. 

Juveniles exposed to full-strength agricultural drainwater from San Joaquin Valley, California, for 28 days. Drainwater had 48.8 (44-53) mg B/L Leopard frog, Ranapipiens, embryos, through day 4 posthatch Boric acid Soft water 13 mg B/L 130 mg B/L Hard water 22 mg B/L 135 mg B/L Borax Soft water 5 mg B/L 47 mg B/L Hard water 3 mg B/L 54 mg B/L... 

Most of the world s supply of borax now comes from a gigantic open-pit mine near a California town appropriately named Boron. There are now myriad uses for the material that started its technological life as a gold flux. We use it to make glass for car headlights, enamel for stoves and refrigerators, ceramic tiles, antiseptics, bleach for unbleachables, weed killers, and fertilizers. Thin fibers made from elemental boron reinforce resins destined for aircraft and space-vehicle parts. 

Less than a hundred years ago, a mineral called borax, containing the element boron, was carted out of Death Valley in California by twenty-mule teams — about the slowest transportation you can think of. Someday, boron may be put in zip-fuels for space missiles — the fastest form of transportation imaginable. Boron has the ability (as does carbon) to... 

Borax from the salt lakes of Kashmir and Tibet has been known since early history. India, the former U.S.S.R., and Persia possess small deposits. Extensive deposits are known in the United States, notably in Lake, San Bernardino, Inyo, and Kern Counties in California, and Esmeralda and Dona Ana Counties in New Mexico. 

Borax occurs naturally as tincal in the dried-up inland lakes of India, Tibet California. Native tincal contains ca 55% Sodium Tetraborate Deca-hydrate, Na2B4O7.10H2O mw 381.44, mp 75°... 

The borate minerals in this open-pit borax mine near Boron, California, are believed to have been formed by the evaporation of water from hot springs that were once present. 

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