of crude salts (ore) in New Mexico was
13.0 million tons, excluding Horizon
Potash Corp. 's crude ore production,
with an average K20 content of 12.5%, a
2% decrease in ore grade from that of
1992.  Four producers operated five
mines at the end of 1993. (See table 3.)
Horizon shut down permanently on April
23d, the day the petition for consultation
with the potash producers of Belarus,
Russia, and Ukraine was filed with the
Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.
The company cited the low price of
potash in the southern United States and
Latin America for its demise. About 340
employees were laid   off.   Other
producers were Eddy Potash Inc., owned
by Trans-Resources Inc.; IMC Fertilizers
Inc. (IMCF); Mississippi Potash, Inc.;
New Mexico Potash Corp., owned by
Trans-Resources Inc.; and Western
Ag-Minerals Co., owned by Rayrock
Resources   of  Toronto,   Canada.
Mississippi Chemical Corp.'s potash mine
became Mississippi Potash, Inc., a
separate  subsidiary  on  July   1.
Mississippi Potash announced plans in
August to (1) increase production by
operating at full capacity rather than 10
days on and 4 days off, and (2) install a
compactor bought from the closed potash
refinery to increase granular MOP
capacity. Mississippi Potash has more
than 100 years of reserves and plans to
serve some of the closed mine's former
customers. (See table 4.)
All the New Mexico potash producers
mined underground bedded ore zones and
all except Western Ag-Minerals mined
sylvinite ore (the mixture of sylvite and
halite) from which muriate of potash
originates and beneficiated the ore to
95 %-pure (60 % K20) muriate of potash.
Several forms of beneficiation were used;
the flotation of sylvite (potassium
chloride) from halite (sodium chloride)
was used at Eddy Potash and Mississippi
Potash. The IMCF plant used both
heavy-media separation and flotation.
New Mexico Potash used hydrocyclones
to wash away some of the 6 % clay in the
ore,  leached  the  sylvite  crystals,
separated more clay in hydrocyclones and
thickeners, then produced white muriate
of potash in crystallizers.  Western


Ag-Minerals mined langbeinite ore and
beneficiated the ore by dissolving the
halite with water to liberate sulfate of
potash magnesia (potassium magnesium
sulfate). IMCF mined langbeinite ore
that was beneficiated by heavy-media
separation and flotation to produce sulfate
of potash  magnesia.    With  both
langbeinite and sylvite products, IMCF
reacted fractions of each potash product
to produce sulfate of potash.  Some
muriate of potash from New Mexico was
sold to a domestic potassium nitrate
manufacturer who produced about 50,000
tons.
-In Utah, Moab Salt Inc. produced
muriate of potash for Texasgulf Inc.,
owned by Elf Aquitaine Inc., from an
underground bedded sylvinite deposit by
two-well solution mining and solar
evaporation. The sylvinite salts from the
solar ponds were beneficiated by flotation
to separate sylvite from halite. Great Salt
Lake Minerals Corp. (GSLMC), of
Harris Chemical Group, produced sulfate
of potash from the brines of the North
Arm of the Great Salt Lake by solar
evaporation and a proprietary process of
fractional crystallization.  GSLMC
purchases muriate of potash from other
sources for conversion to sulfate of
potash owing to an excess of sulfate ions
in the lake brine concentrate, but these
purchases of muriate of potash were not
factored into 1993 numbers owing to
scheduling errors. The Reilly-Wendover
operation of Reilly Industries produced
muriate of potash and manure salts from
near-surface brines at the west end of the
Bonneville Lake.
In California, the muriate and sulfate
of potash (and other products) operation
at Searles Lake, owned by North
American Chemical Corp. of Harris
Chemical Group, continued to produce by
solar  evaporation  and   selective
crystallization from the underground
brines of the lake bed. This is the oldest
(since 1915) inorganic potash production
site in the United States.
In Michigan, Kalium Chemical Ltd.
continued pilot plant efforts to develop
the technology to extract and concentrate
muriate of potash from a deep ore body.
Greensand, also known as glauconite,


a natural silicate of aluminum, iron,
magnesium, and potassium, was produced
by Inversand Co., a subsidiary of
Hungerford and Terry Inc., near Clayton,
NJ. Production and sales information are
withheld to avoid disclosing company
proprietary data. Processed greensand
was sold as a filter media for the removal
of iron, manganese, and hydrogen sulfide
from  drinking water supply systems.
Classified raw greensand was resold by
Zook and Ranck Inc. as a soil conditioner
and as a slowly released potash, with a
K20 equivalent between 5 % and 10%, to
the organic farmers of North America.
Consunption and Uses
According to the Potash & Phosphate
Institute, shipments of agricultural potash
from Canadian and United States
producers increased by about 1 % from
1992 to 1993. Shipments of nonagri-
cultural potash increased 9% for a total
(agricultural  plus  nonagricultural)
increase of 2 % from 1992 to 1993. The
major States receiving agricultural potash
from Canadian and United States
producers, in decreasing order, were
Illinois, Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, Minnesota,
Missouri, and Wisconsin. (See tables S
and 6.) These seven States received 53 %
of the total. Domestic producers
accounted for 3 % of agricultural
shipments to Illinois, 4 % of the
agricultural shipments to Iowa, 7 % of the
agricultural shipments to Ohio, 5 % of the
agricultural shipments to Indiana, 1% of
the agricultural shipments to Minnesota,
59 % of the agricultural shipments to
Missouri, and 1% of the agricultural
shipments to Wisconsin.  The major
receiving States of domestically produced
agricultural potash, in decreasing order,
were Texas, Missouri, California,
Kansas, Florida, Arkansas, and
Louisiana, and these States received 63 %
of the total. The major States receiving
domestically produced agricultural
sulfates of potash (sulfate of potash and
sulfate of potash magnesia) were, in
decreasing order, Florida, California,
Georgia, Kentucky, Ohio, and Texas.
These six States accounted for 59 % of the
total. These figures do not account for


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