....For that kind of money why not buy Intrepid's Wendover division instead. They you can control everything and not have to reinvent the wheel. Tom G.
I've thought about that many times. I wonder how much the place would go for. I wonder how much they are paying for their leases? Outbid them?.
Sum
Sum,
I had time to do some Goggling last night. Found a PDF that was an interesting read along with the background of the mining. I could be wrong but it looks like there are about +or- 24,000 acres of land leased to Intrepid Wendover and somewhere on the internet it said the lease price was over $200 an acre. Please don't quote me do your own research as I could be mistaken. Using these numbers the cost would be + or - $4.8 million a year just to lease the land. So that is out of the question unless someone wins the lottery and would love to donate their winnings to a good cause.
Tom G.
http://www.blm.gov/pgdata/etc/medialib/blm/ut/salt_lake_fo/planning/documents.Par.17457.File.dat/Intrepid%20EA.pdfPotash extraction operations began in the early 1900’s in Tooele County near Wendover
Utah under the authority of the 1872 Mining Law. Although the Mineral Leasing Act of
1920 proclaimed that potassium and similar minerals such as sodium and magnesium were no longer locatable under the Mining Law, several thousand acres of mining claims were grandfathered and in 1929, patented into private ownership. In 1936, Bonneville Ltd. was the first company to successfully produce potash by solar
evaporation (Gywnn, p. 1-3, 1996). In April 1962 Bonneville Ltd. applied for ten potassium leases adjacent to their operations near Wendover Utah.
Ten Federal Potassium (potash) leases covering 24,699.83 acres were issued to Bonneville Ltd. on January 1, 1963 under the authority of the Mineral Leasing Act of 1920. These ten leases were assigned to Standard
Magnesium (and Chemical) Corporation on May 1, 1963. The leases were then assigned to Kaiser Aluminum and Chemical Corporation (Kaiser) on April 1, 1964. On July 1, 1988 the BLM approved the assignment of these
leases to Reilly Tar and Chemical Corporation. On December 1, 2004 the leases were assigned to
Intrepid Wendover Potash LLC
Fiscal Year 2012, activities on public lands generated $4.6 billion in revenue, much of which was shared with the States where the activities occurred. In addition, public lands contributed more than $112 billion to the U.S. economy and helped support more than 500,000 jobs.