Dumping on potash What is Potash?

Potash was the name given to the evaporation residue from water leac hing of wood ash. The element potassium was first prepared in 1807 by Sir Humphrey Davy using electrolysis. Today potash is the term applied to the large bedded deposits of potassium chloride which represent part of the crystalline residue of naturally evaporated sea water. Thick sequences of the more abundant sodium chloride, or “table salt,” are associated with them. Some potash is produced as one of several salts in evaporation plants using salt lake or brine waters. Bedded deposits are mined underground using room and pillar methods and continuous mining machines, or, less commonly, by employing solution wells which dissolve the potash salts underground for subsequent recovery by evaporation at the surface. Like phosphate, potash is a major plant nutrient, and about 95% of all potash production goes into fertilizers. The remainder in various compounds goes into soaps, photographic emulsions, pharmaceuticals, hard glass, fireworks, gunpowder, etc.

The three largest producers of potash are the U.S.S.R. with nine million tonnes per year, Canada with 7.3 million tonnes, and East Germany with 3.5 million tonnes. Together these three produce more than 70% of the world’s 28.2 million tonnes of potash. World potash consumption is expected to grow at about 4% a year. — Gary and Gail Pearse, The Mineral Investor’s Handbook