| OCR Text |
Show 104 harvest ponds in which sodium and potassium salt precipitate. These precipitates are purified and refined in nearby plants. The bitterns could be fed to the magnesium chloride plant, now in standby. Lithium could also be recovered from these bitterns. Figure 19 shows the relationship between pond area and percent potassium in brine for a given potassium sulfate production. The Great Salt Lake Minerals and Chemicals Corporation was designed to utilize the concentrated brines in the North Arm and to take advantage of the increased potassium, magnesium, and sulfate contents of this brine due to the' precipitation of halite there, realizing the beneficial effect of the causeway. Redissolving of some of this early precipitated halite has already reduced the percentage of potassium, magnesium, and sulfate of North Arm brines from 0.74, 1.18, and 2.18 respectively in 1966 to 0.65, 1.10, and 1.88 in 1974. A further reduction of either concentration or percent of bitterns will seriously affect their operations, and even moderate declines of concentration of bittern contents could make their operations uneconomical. In 1970, 87 percent of domestic potash was produced in New Mexico and the remainder came from California, Maryland, Michigan, and Utah. Approximately 95 percent of this commodity is used as fertilizer. Although the increasing demand for fertilizer indicates that demand for potash will increase rapidly, excess supplies exist. Furthermore, sources outside the U. S., especially those in Canada, are superior to domestic ones. However, the U. S. exported potash to certain countries as foreign aid or where it offered some special advantage. The Bureau of Economic and Business Research of the University of Utah states that, in the absence of import restrictions, Canada could capture at least 62 percent of the |
