Interested parties are starting to stir over the vast potash and salts deposits located in about 11 square miles in the northwest corner of this state, according to the state geologist. Edward Murphy, who is also assistant director of the North Dakota Geological Survey, recently brought this to the attention of the local press, but at the time declined to disclose the company or companies involved in the discussions.
Last week, Murphy confirmed for Green Markets that one of the groups is Denver-based Dakota Salts LLC, which has its eye on solution-mining the salts and then using the emptied caverns for storing compressed air for generating electricity or carbon dioxide from coal-burning power plants or natural gas from the state’s oil fields.
Murphy declined to name the second group he has been in contact with, saying “I am not sure who ultimately is backing the people that I have been dealing with. I would not have access to that specific information until they submitted a permit application.”
A quick check, however, could find no major North American producer involved. The Mosaic Co. responded that market conditions are not conducive at this time for starting any greenfield or new projects. Spokeswoman Linda Thrasher said, “This is the first I’ve heard about North Dakota.”
Agrium spokesman Richard Downey said since his company “has access to its own high quality potash reserves that we are looking to develop in Saskatchewan and Manitoba, there’s no need to look elsewhere.”
Intrepid Potash in New Mexico didn’t respond to email inquiries, but that company is known to be involved in a major solution-mining proposal with the Bureau of Land Management in that state.
PotashCorp is on record as touting its own brownfield projects versus any new greenfield projects.
Many upstart companies, however, have searched the globe for potash in the past year; however, news from these has cooled somewhat after the coming of the global financial crisis. Whether they or anyone else has the financial wherewithal to start a new greenfield project in today’s climate is still to be seen.
Walter Doyle, the London-based chairman of Dakota Salts, said the rich salt and untapped potash deposits in the northwestern part of the state, along with huge wind farms planned in the area, made the project attractive. The newly-formed company intends to use idled drill rigs from the state’s oil patch to bore for salt and potash, he said.
Murphy previously has reported that potash deposits may be mined from North Dakota in beds of sylvite (potassium chloride) or sylvinite (mixtures of potassium chloride and sodium chloride). State estimates are that approximately 50 billion tons of potash occur in the Prairie Formation (Devonian) in North Dakota. These evaporites were deposited in a trough that extends from the Northwest Territories in Canada to northeastern Montana and northwestern North Dakota. Potash beds occupy an area of 11,000 square miles that extends from the Montana border to central Bottineau County, and from the Canadian border to central Dunn County. This salt interval reaches its maximum thickness of over 500 feet in Burke County, which is the location attracting Dakota Salts. The potash portion of the salt section has a gross thickness of 83 feet. Murphy explained the main reason that these potash deposits have not been utilized is because these same beds are found at much shallower depths, which enable the use of both conventional mining as well as solution mining in southern Saskatchewan.
Murphy says the advent of new technology should make it easier today to get to the North Dakota product.