World potash

An assessment of world potash resources (108) is shown in Table 15. Of the 67 x 10 t of total estimated reserves and resources in Canada, nearly 5 X 10 t is recoverable by conventional mining methods and the remainder by solution mining. As of 1974, Canada had about half of the known world reserves and about 90% of known world resources of potassium. 

Table 15. Assessment of World Potash Reserves and Resources, t x 10 of K2O...

The main source of potassium is potash rock, a group of sedimentary substances often found in association with rock salt, gypsum, and dolomite. The term potash itself was derived originally from the pot ash formed when seawater was mixed with wood ashes and boiled. Because of the importance of potassium for plant growth, about 95 percent of the worlds potash is converted into fertilizer. 

Figure 7. Free world potash supply and demand...

World potash overcapacity will persist during most or all of the Seventies... 

Important Compounds and Uses Around the turn of the millennium, the total annual output of the world s potash industry including potassium sulfates and potassium products for industrial uses amounted to 30 million tons of K2O. Capital investment in the Soviet Union and Canada and the rapidly increasing use of fertilizers in agriculture in the 1960s and 1970s led to a steep increase in world potash production. Since 1980, the average annual increase in world potash production has been only 0.7%. 

Almost two-thirds of the world potash production output are exported. All the potash-producing countries except Brazil and China are exporters. Canada is by far the largest exporter (in total, 17 million tons of K2O were exported annually). The estimated world demand for potash fertilizers in the 1990-1991 business year was 26 million tons of K2O, with some 95% of the total potash production being used as fertilizers. The total output of products of the potash industry exceeds requirements by about 1.5 million tons of K2O. 

The last several decades have seen many cycles of world potash demand, the effects of which directly impact potash exploration in Saskatchewan. Saskatchewan s potash industry is currently undergoing a boom with current demand significantly increasing expansion and exploration within the province. Potash activity is presently being undertaken from existing potash producers (as Greenfield and Brownfield Projects) and junior exploration companies (as Greenfield Projects). 

Large, deeply buried potash deposits are mainly associated with marine e aporite sequences and less commonly with non-marine evaporites throughout the world. Potash deposits occur on every inhabited continent and have been identified in most geologic time periods from the Cambrian to the present. The most abundant potash mineral in commercial potash deposits is sydvite Sylvite and halite (NaCl) form the common potash ore called sylvinite. In most occurrences, fairly pure sylvinite... 

To the present time, world potash production has been only partially based upon economic merit. In the countries of the former Soviet Union and in East Germany, the potash operations were entirely government owned and controlled. These centrally planned economy countries had constructive, but forced-use internal markets, and capital and operating costs were often not critical factors. Consequently, the potash industry in many of these countries employed excessive numbers of workers per tonne of potash produced. Often mines with low-grade ores or processing plants using relatively... 

Production of potash in 1994 was estimated at 21.6 million tonnes 1 0, some 0,7 million tonnes higher than 1993 (Table 5.25). This production level represents an overall capacity utilization of about 60% of the world potash mine capacity (36 million tpy). Output from the former Soviet Union countries was projected to stala-lize In 1994 however, production may still be on a downward trend. The production of FSU countries has been mainly limited by the progressive loss of domestic demand, and by lower demand in the traditional markets of central Europe. The longer production remains far... 

World consumption of potassium salts presentiy exceeds 28 million t of K O equivalent per year. About 93% of that is for fertilizer use (see POTASSIUM compounds). The potash [17353-70-7] industry is essentially a mining and beneftciation industry. The two main fertilizer materials, KCl and K SO are produced by beneftciating ores at the mine sites. The upgraded salts then are shipped to distributors and manufacturers of mixed goods. 

For most of the decade prior to 1965, the United States was the world s largest single producer of potash. More than 90% of this production came from mines in New Mexico. As the grades of these deposits lowered and production costs rose, expanding production in Saskatchewan, Canada,... 

World Survey of Potash Resources, 2nd ed.. The British Sulphur Corp. Ltd., London, 1966. 

Between 1869 and the beginning of World War I, most of the world s supply of potassium salts came from the Stassfurt deposits in Germany. During World War I, U.S. production, measured as K2O, rose from 1000 metric tons in 1914 to 41,500 t in 1919. Following the end of World War I, U.S. production declined as imports increased. By the time the United States entered World War II, however, production had expanded enough to meet domestic needs. Since then, production has fluctuated, but has fallen below consumption as of the mid-1990s. Total annual U.S. demand peaked at 6.9 X 10 t in 1979 and has leveled off at approximately 5.1 to 5.5 million t. Canada is the principal potash exporter. 

Potassium chloride [7447-40-7] or muriate of potash (MOP) as it is known in the fertilizer industry (at about 97% purity), is the world s most commonly used potash (5). Chemical-grade potassium chloride (99.9%) is the basis for manufactured production of most potassium salts (10). 

A fourth source of brine is obtained through solution mining. Potash is mined in Moab, Utah by solution mining. Much of the food-grade sodium chloride in the United States, Europe, and other parts of the world is solution mined. Large beds of potassium salts in Canada and trona beds in Wyoming and California are being solution mined. 

Economic Aspects and Uses. Total world production of potassium products is 29,000,000 tons per year (65). Potassium chloride is removed from brine at Moab, and Wendover, Utah, and at Seades Lake, California. Potassium sulfate is made from Great Salt Lake brine by Great Salt Lake Minerals Corp., which is the largest producer of solar potassium sulfate in the wodd. Combined, these U.S. faciUties stiU produce a relatively small percentage of potash fertilizers in the wodd. Production from the Dead Sea, for example, is 10 times greater than production of potassium from brines in the United States. More than 95% of all the potassium produced is used in fertilizer blends. The remainder is converted to other potassium chemicals for industdal use (see Potassium compounds). 

Evaporites are important sources of economic minerals that have been exploited for at least the past 6000y. For example, the evaporite mineral trona (NaHCOj -Na2C03 2H2O) was used by the ancient Egyptians to preserve mummies. Evaporite salts continue to be used for food preservation, construction, road deicing, and in industrial processes. The marine evaporites of Saskatchewan (Canada) are the world s largest source of potash (KCl), which is used as an agricultural fertilizer. In the United States,... 

Formerly all the iodine was made from the ash of seaweed, and potash was a remunerative appendix to the iodine industry but just as the Stassfurt salts killed those industries which extracted potash from other sources, so did the separation of iodine from the caliche mother-liquors threaten the industrial extraction of iodine from seaweed with extinction. Iodine in a very crude form was exported from Chili in 1874—e.g. a sample was reported with iodine 52-5 per cent. iodine chloride, 3-3 sodium iodate, 13 potassium and sodium nitrate and sulphate, 15 9 magnesium chloride, 0 4 insoluble matter, 1 5 water, 25-2 per cent. About that time much of the iodine was imported as cuprous iodide. This rendered necessary the purification of the Chilian product but now the iodine is purified in Chili before it is exported. The capacity of the Chilian nitre works for the extraction of iodine is greater than the world s demand. It is said that the existing Chilian factories could produce about 5100 tons of iodine per annum whereas the... 

The. World s Supply of Potash, London, 1915 A. Smetham, Potash, Preston, 1915. 

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