GSLM defends claim of rare potash source

Salt Lake City-Critics who claim that Great Salt Lake is not the sole source of a rare potash fertilizer (sulfate of potash, or SOP) don’t have their facts straight, according to Great Salt Lake Minerals (GLSM), which is seeking approval to expand recovery of SOP from the lake. In a recent Salt Lake Tribune editorial page comment, one environmental activist declared as “either a misconstrued statement or a deliberate exaggeration” that the company is the only American producer of SOP, when Intrepid Potash Inc.’s Lee County, N.M., mine can make that claim and Alabama also has a source of the naturally occurring product. “Exploiting the Great Salt Lake is not the only way America can meet the future needs of farmers,” asserted Cricket Rollins, a volunteer for Lakeside Learning in the Salt Lake area. In a response also carried in the Salt Lake daily, Mark Reynolds, GSLM raw materials development manager, said there’s a lot of confusion about what sulfate of potash is as well as what the expansion would provide. “The only source for SOP ?Çô potash without chloride or magnesium ?Çô is Great Salt Lake Minerals’ evaporation ponds, which the company seeks to expand. GSLM’s expansion is the only American way to provide our nation’s farmers with the chloride-free potassium they need to grow the fruits and vegetables our families will want in the future.” Intrepid’s Trio SOP product contains magnesium.