RI 2020 The Potash Industry of the United States and its Possibilities for Future Production (b4afd0bc-26be-4cbe-b2c2-33cd259f399a)

"The present and possible future commercial production of potash from various sources in the United Status is discussed below under the following heads:1. Potash from the saline lakes.(a) Nebraska lakes.(b) California lakes.(c) Other lakes.2. Potash as by-product from the cement kilns.3. Potash as by-product from the iron blast furnace.4. Potash from silicate rocks.(a) Feldspathic material.(b) Leucite rocks of Wyoming..(c) Sericite slates of Georgia.(d) Glauconite (greensand) of New Jersey.5. Potash from Alunite.6. Potash from organic sources other than kelp.7. Potash from kelp.In this discussion very little more than passing reference, if any, will be given to those projects which up to date have been developed only slightly, if at all, beyond the small scale laboratory stage, or for the development of which there appears to be very little financial and technical backing at the present time. Nether or not many of these proposed projects have merit can be determined only by an actual operating demonstration.Generally speaking, the potash industry of the United States has been hardly more than marking time since the armistice. This is, largely due to the fact that the consumers of potash have been expecting that heavy shipments of foreign potash to the United States would be resumed soon at somewhere near the pre-war prices, and they have not seen owing domestic potash at present prices for many months. The result has been that domestic producers have been unable to sell their product at even cost and many producers of potash have been obliged to close down. Thu Nebraska lake plants were closed down in February. The California saline plants were operating at below capacity, and the only large alunite plant is closed down. Even the cement plants have little or no inducements to recover the potash being lost in their waste gases and the production is very small at present.This condition will doubtless continue until a definite policy is decided upon as to the future importation of potash salts from Germany and. France. If unrestricted importation is allowed at prices even 50% greater than in 1913, only a very few, if any, of the domestic projects will be in position to compete with the foreign potash immediately, and the present industry will probably greatly decline with little or no prospect for a future resumption of the industry."