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| |    | |  Mesa's potash projects in Utah consist of 116 square miles of exploration permit applications with the Bureau of Land Management:
Two miles to the south of the White Cloud project, Intrepid Potash's Cane Creek mine produces 80,000 tons of potash and 100,000 tons of by-product salt annually. Potash is produced by solution mining and solar evaporation from potash beds #5 and #9 at depths of 3,000 to 4,500 feet. The mine has been in production for over 45 years. Solution mining has the benefits of lower capital cost, shorter timeline to production and lower operating costs as compared to conventional potash operations. Historic oil well logs document that the two beds being mined at the Cane Creek mine extend onto the White Cloud project.
The projects are located within the Paradox Basin, a geologic province known to contain potash deposits and mineral-rich artesian brines. Various government and private reports document these occurrences. The projects are within 'Known Potash Deposit Areas' as designated by the U.S. Bureau of Mines. At the Salt Wash project the potash beds occur at depths of 3,500 to 8,600 feet, and 1,500 to 7,000 feet at the Whipsaw project. The projects are close to railroad, interstate highway, natural gas pipelines and power lines. About Potash Potassium is the seventh most abundant element in the Earth's crust, and is the third major plant and crop nutrient after nitrogen and phosphate. About 93% of world potash consumption is used in fertilizers, with small amounts used in manufacturing soaps, glass, ceramics, chemical dyes, drugs, synthetic rubber, de-icing agents, water softeners and explosives. Other main potash fertilizer products include potassium sulphate (K2SO4) and potassium nitrate (KNO3). Potash has been used since antiquity in the manufacture of glass, soap, and soil fertilizer. Potash is important for agriculture because it improves water retention, yield, nutrient value, taste, colour, texture and disease resistance of food crops. It has wide application to fruit and vegetables, rice, wheat and other grains, sugar, corn, soybeans, palm oil and cotton, all of which benefit from the nutrient's quality enhancing properties. Demand for food and animal feed has been on the rise since 2000. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (ERS) attributes the trend to average annual population increases of 75 million people around the world. Geographically, population growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China, known collectively as "BRIC", greatly contributed to the increased use of potash-based fertilizer. Rising incomes in developing countries also was a factor in the growing potash and fertilizer use. With more money in the household budget, consumers added more meat and dairy products to their diets. This shift in eating patterns required more acres to be planted, more fertilizer to be applied and more animals to be fed -- all requiring more potash. | | |
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