Potash Mining

Solutions Mining Basics

The Michigan Potash solution-mining process would:

• Pull fresh, potable water from the ground...  
  • ...pump it into underground salt-formations to form cavities...
  • ...to dissolve & flush various salts and other substances to the surface.
• Use high-pressure pipelines to transport these concentrated brines to a refinery...
  • ...for isolating potassium-chloride ( a variety of “potash” used to fertilize certain crops not harmed by chloride build-up in the soil)...
  • ...and sodium-chloride (used mainly for water-softening, ice-control, and as “table-salt”).
• Combine re-condensed steam and large volumes of new, potable well-water with the remaining material and inject it once again into the mining cavity.
• To control the buildup of undesirable substances, 10-19% of these fluids will be continuously disposed of through waste-wells and replaced with fresh well-water.