Potash Mining

Solutions Mining Basics

Solution mining extracts valuable minerals by pumping fresh water underground to dissolve salt formations, then bringing the mineral-rich brine back to the surface for processing. This method allows companies to harvest potash, table salt, and other minerals from deep deposits without traditional excavation. The dissolved minerals are separated at surface refineries, while the remaining water is either recycled back underground or disposed of through waste wells.

What Would the Michigan Potash Solution-Mining Process Do?

Solution Mining would pull fresh, potable water from the ground:

pump it into underground salt formations to form cavities, and
to dissolve & flush various salts and other substances to the surface.

The process uses high-pressure pipelines to transport these concentrated brines to a refinery:

for isolating potassium-chloride ( a variety of “potash” used to fertilize certain crops not harmed by chloride build-up in the soil)…
and sodium-chloride (primarily used for water-softening, ice-control, and as “table salt”).

Combine the re-condensed steam and large volumes of new, potable well water with the remaining material and inject it once again into the mining cavity.

To control the buildup of undesirable substances, 10-19% of these fluids will be continuously disposed of through waste wells and replaced with fresh well water.

Several stages of this operation threaten water resources, both above and below ground:

Water Withdrawal
Brine Handling & Transport
Waste Injection

With Michigan Potash Company, we believe that these risks will be greatly multiplied due to a combination of:

Inexperience
Poor site selection
Lack of knowledge re. site hydrogeology
Financial stress ( see “Economics” section )