Findings could lead to new $65 billion industry for Michigan

Kathy Jennings | Thursday, September 12, 2013

Geological data stored at Western Michigan University's Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education has led to the rediscovery of mineral deposits under two West Michigan counties that could generate a new, lucrative business for the state.

The West Michigan counties of Osceola and Mecosta could see "explosive job growth" as high-quality potash ore is mined. Potash, or potassium chloride, is a critical ingredient in fertilizer and an essential plant nutrient.

And mining potash could create a $65 billion industry for the state. The findings of the potassium ore are particularly significant considering supplies are dwindling at the three locations in the nation where they currently can be found.

Potash is found in areas once covered by inland seas and only a few have been identified globally. When the seas evaporated potassium and sodium chloride deposits crystallized into potash ore and were covered by successive layers of rock and soil.

Verification of the quality and amount of potassium ore in what is identified as the Borgen Bed was done by using core samples provided by WMU geologists under the direction of Dr. William B. Harrison III. The geologic core samples were collected in the early 1980s when a Canadian company was prospecting for potash in Michigan but then did not pursue commercialization of the deposit.

The Michigan deposit, WMU's Harrison says, is the purest and highest-grade potash being produced globally--600 percent higher than that being produced in New Mexico's vast Permian Basin. It is also twice the grade of deposits found in Canada and Russia, the two nations that control more than 80 percent of the world's potash reserve.

Michigan Potash Co. LLC now controls the rediscovered potassium ore reserve in the Borgen Bed that lies under more than 14,500 acres in the two counties. The company has worked over the past three years to ensure the reserve could be technically, economically, and logistically put into production in a competitive fashion.

Not only will the mining of the potash be good business for the state but also good for Michigan corn and soybean farmers, Harrison says. It will allow the production of a Michigan product for Michigan farmers that would dramatically reduce the expensive transport costs on the more than 300,000 tons of potash consumed in Michigan annually.

"One of the things that makes this so valuable is that it is an incredibly rich deposit that is in easy reach of the enormous demand from Midwest corn and soybean farmers who operate within a 500-mile radius of this deposit," Harrison says. "This is an opportunity for new wealth to come from the use of natural resources never tapped before."

Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave Media
Source: Cheryl Roland, Western Michigan University