Saving the Salt

[jimwebb]

Was there any news out of the SCTA Board Meeting last night? I hope the meet can happen in some form or fashion, but I'd sure like to know something pretty soon! Like a lot of other folks, we still have stuff to finish up before we go and after making the 3K mile trip last year, I'm a little gun shy! If the event is going to happen, it'd be great to know what kind of course length there may be, whether or not the course can be moved over if it gets beaten up, how much shutdown distance there may be and the condition of the path from Land's End to pits. I know there are no absolutes, but best guesses and polished crystal ball prognostications are welcome. Thanks to all SCTA for struggling though this uncertainty!

[johnneilson]

Second hand info from meeting last night;

Crew is heading up to Wendover this weekend and will assess the courses on Monday.

"official word" is coming on Tuesday.  Sit tight.

John

[Stainless1]

I think we need to look at the report Hotrod posted in what they do thread

During the other debate threads on salt conditions the question has come up in various ways, exactly what does Intrepid do?


Potassium chloride, commonly known as potash, and magnesium chloride are recovered
through surface extraction at the Wendover site, which has been owned by Reilly
since 1988 and in continuous operation since 1932. Potash is a crop nutrient.
Magnesium chloride brine is used for dust control, anti-icing, chemical intermediates
and specialty fertilizers.

Reilly Industries produces specialty chemicals. It has 550 workers in seven
facilities in the United States, Europe and Asia.

Here is an extract from one page of their 2008 report for a quick summary of what they do at Wendover.


Intrepid Potash, Inc. Mine Operations
Wendover Facility

Product                                            Muriate of Potash
Extraction Method                             Lake Brine Evaporation
Nameplate Capacity                          120,000 tons of Potash annually
Effective Capacity                              93,000 tons of Potash annually
Minimum Remaining Reserve Life        30 Years

The Wendover Facility is located 122 miles west of Salt Lake City, Utah and has been actively used for potash production from naturally occurring brines for over 75 years.
Brine from a shallow potash containing aquifer is collected in over 100 lineal miles of open ditches throughout the 88,000 acres of land controlled by Intrepid. In addition to the brine that is collected in the shallow aquifer, there is a deep potash containing aquifer 1,000 feet below ground. Intrepid has drilled three wells, two of which were drilled in 2008, into this deep aquifer to provide supplemental brine into the system.
Since acquiring the Wendover Facility in 2004, we have made a number of process improvements including applying best practices to increase volumes and efficiencies.
We pump the brine collected in the ditch system into an 8,000 acre solar evaporation pond to evaporate water and precipitate salts. Over five billion gallons of brine are pumped into the solar pond system each year. As the brine becomes saturated with potash, it is transferred through a series of  smaller evaporation ponds into harvest ponds. When the ripened brine finally reaches the harvest ponds, the ore (a combination of salt and potash) precipitates onto the pond floor. The remaining brine in the harvest ponds is removed and the ore is harvested and transported by elevating scrapers to the mill for processing. In the mill, the potash is separated from the salt by flotation. The material is then dried, compacted, and screened into standard product or compacted into a granular grade of white potash. To produce Metal Recovery Salt (MRS), which is a combination of potash and salt, the ore from the harvest ponds is sent directly to the dryer to be dried and screened. The final products are conveyed and stored in bulk storage warehouses. From the warehouses, potash and MRS are loaded directly into railcars or trucks for shipment.
The left over brine, rich in magnesium chloride, is removed from the harvest ponds and transferred into additional evaporation ponds to concentrate further. Then, the brine is transferred into storage ditches and lined ponds. From storage, the magnesium chloride brine, which is used as a winter highway de-icing product and also a dust control and soil stabilization agent, is loaded into trucks or railcars for shipment.

Now from what I see, they are removing potash, salt and magnesium chloride.  From a study I was involved in with Boeing, magnesium chloride was the primary component causing corrosion in our circuit breakers.... the study said the problem was having the airplanes on islands... magnesium chloride is a major component of sea salt.  So It seems they are hauling more than potash away in those train cars... Metal recovery salt?
Any questions on where the racing surface is going and why its thin? 

They employ 550 people worldwide.... Not it Wendover.... The big question is the balance of economic impact... I would also think that it would take them several years of pumping just to return the salt they have sitting in their ponds.  I think the BLM should require them to stop harvesting salt, and start putting it back so the salt flats don't disappear.

[maj]

i had to look this up ,  your looking at 35.7% salt in a saturated solution of cold water by weight

wonder how much of that is from the bores and how much from surface water
 

[jimwebb]

Thanks, John. It's hard to know whether to sit tight or bust ass!
Jim

[Milwaukee Midget]

It appears to come from the Salt Lake Tribune:

http://www.sltrib.com/news/2741970-155/blm-confirms-utahs-bonneville-salt-flats

Mike

Now that's an interesting headline -

BLM confirms Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats may not be suitable for racing this year

Implicit in that would be the BLM determining what a safe course should look like.   

[Stan Back]

I Goggled it, but couldn't find reference to the once-listed Intrepid Salt Co.  I saw it a couple of years ago, but can't find reference.  Mike?

[hotrod]

They also sell a product called Trio.

Which is a sulfate of potash compound, I think it safe to say that they are stripping potassium chloride, magnesium chloride, magnesium sulfate and some common sodium chloride salts in their various products.

Anyone know a retired chemist who wants to poke around and see what he can find on the actual quantity of various salts is being shipped off in these various products?
They mention in their reports that the purity of the final pond evaporation product is variable and it is a complex mix of salts although potassium bearing salts are the primary component there is a lot of other stuff going out the door.

Here locally I have noticed that potassium chloride salt is now being marketed for water softeners (local grocery store 50# bags used to be pure NaCl) for people concerned about sodium intake I presume.

Mag chloride is now the preferred deicing compound used on city streets here in Colorado, it is supposedly less corrosive than NaCl (common salt) but it is also used in greater quantities. It is around here applied as a wet spray prior to cold weather to depress flash freezing even when there  is little or no snowfall. Commonly in the form called "ice slicer"

http://envirotechservices.com/deicing-anti-icing/bulk-granular-deicing-products/iceslicer/
I do not know if Intrepid provides raw materials to this company (Redmond Minerals, Inc.) for this product though.

http://www.peterschemical.com/magnesium-chloride-as-a-road-deicer-a-critical-review/

https://www.codot.gov/programs/research/pdfs/by-subject/by-subject-l-p/magnesium-chloride

[hotrod]

I Goggled it, but couldn't find reference to the once-listed Intrepid Salt Co.  I saw it a couple of years ago, but can't find reference.  Mike?

Proper name of the company in Wendover is Intrepid Potash Inc.


http://marketrealist.com/2014/02/generating-revenue-ipi-make-money/

This page has info on the actual products from each plant it looks like:

http://www.intrepidpotash.com/ProductsSales/AgriculturalProducts.aspx

http://www.intrepidpotash.com/ProductsSales/AgriculturalProducts/StandardPotashMoabAgriculturalSpecSheet.aspx
http://www.intrepidpotash.com/ProductsSales/AgriculturalProducts/GranularPotashWendoverSpecSheet.aspx
http://www.intrepidpotash.com/ProductsSales/AgriculturalProducts/StandardPotashWendoverAgriculturalSpecSheet.aspx

Trio
http://www.intrepidpotash.com/ProductsSales/AgriculturalProducts/StandardTRIOAgriculturalSpecSheet.aspx


Looks like Trio is 66% S04
Not sure if Trio comes out of Wendover plant or one of the others though.

[4-barrel Mike]

Their history from their website http://www.intrepidpotash.com/AboutUs/History.aspx:

Intrepid Potash History

Intrepid Mining was formed in January 2000 for the purpose of acquiring the Moab Mine from PCS. The Moab Mine was a solution mine which had experienced sustained declining production. Our management team stabilized production volumes substantially above the pre-acquisition level by applying horizontal drilling technology that is commonly used in the oil and gas industry but had never before been used to mine potash.

We observed that potash from Moab shared markets with potash produced in Carlsbad, New Mexico and in Wendover, Utah. Accordingly, we formulated a strategy to acquire assets in those areas in order to consolidate marketing efforts and effect operating synergies. We acquired the assets of Mississippi Potash, Inc. and Eddy Potash, Inc. in Carlsbad, New Mexico from Mississippi Chemical Company in February 2004. In April 2004, we acquired the potash assets of Reilly Chemical, Inc. in Wendover, Utah.

Wikipedia entry: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrepid_Potash

I wonder if this (talking about the Wendover plant) was recently edited:

This plant siphons off brine from the nearby Bonneville Salt Flats during the winter when the bed is covered in brine. This has led to the disappearance of the flats, that is the thick salt layer that normally covers the area. This is destroying its utility as a popular race bed and surface for setting ground speed records, where long, uniform flat surfaces are required. This has led to an outcry from the fans who use it. In an effort to reverse this loss, Intrepid has voluntarily been pumping processed brine back to the flats. Activists are confident this will reverse the damage, but are wary because the replenishment is voluntary and are worried what may happen if ownership of the mine changes hands, so are working on legislation to make the brine replenishment mandatory. (The reference for this para: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/flat-out-end-of-the-road-for-utahs-speed-plains-7575839.html)

Mike

[johnneilson]

Thanks, John. It's hard to know whether to sit tight or bust Acura!
Jim

I am right there with Ya Brother!!

I just fired up the new motor and continuing on as if nothing had happened.

I think short course is OK, 3 miles would work for me.

I just hope that more than one course is set up.

Carry on!!  John

[hotrod]

According to that salt laydown report they did not achieve a saturated solution (understandable that is the limiting case).
They said the brine ranged from 14% with simple extraction to 18–20% NaCl after they improved the pond process.

Implies a safe guess is actual salt content ranges from 15% to 20% for all that brine they pumped over. Obviously much of it did not stay on the surface but soaked into the deep layers of the salt complex, so much of the "recovery" in the salt flats might be happening deep in the mud below the surface layer. If true it might take a decade of two of pumping to show significant improvement in the top hard salt crust.

(source above from ) http://www.blm.gov/style/medialib/blm/ut/salt_lake_fo/bonneville_salt_flats/salt_laydown_project.Par.49376.File.dat/IMF03_White_BSF5yr_042004.pdf
page 5 of the pdf with page number 247, left column just above table 1

[Flipper_1938]

When the salt is gone, Intrepid needs to pay for a 15 mile drag strip where Bonneville used to be.

[Bob Drury]

  Mike that's pretty interesting but the date on the heading of the article being tomorrow  which it is now in the U.K. (proving to Stan that the Earth is indeed round).
  I am impressed that the media in Europe is on top of the issue, but I kind of agree with Hot Rod about not wanting misleading information starting false rumors creating animosities, needless lawsuits, peoples job loss's, etc.  Problems in translation  (sorry, Pork Pie), lack of knowledge of Laws, Right's, What we are asking for, What the BLM plans to do and when are all important to the Public as well as to Us.  
  Last week four spectators died watching a illegal street race in Georgia which has gone World Wide in the media with the Heading: FOUR KILLED IN DRAG RACING ACCIDENT.  When I answer people who ask how much money I can win at Bonneville and How much Sponsorships pay I always say that We don't normally receive either because the only time We make the news is when someone dies at a event.  Sponsor's want Media coverage but our's is not a Spectator Oriented Sport.  
  No one on Earth gives a Sh*t that you or I just set a record except our racing peer's and close friends.  Bad publicity is never a good thing for our particular Sport because our "Race Track" belongs to the Citizens of the United States. Perception in the Public's eye is Paramount.
  In truth, if the Salt Flats are saved so We can all race again (even if its not until next Year) and it turns out that those of us who might be considered "radical trouble makers" are held up as victorious hero's, I will not be standing on any podium slapping my own back because We ALL are in this together and every one who offers a opinion, right or wrong, has made each of us think about a solution.
  Likewise if The Salt miraculously heals, but We (the Racers) end up with more Sanctions as a result of bringing this issue to a head, I will accept My share of the blame, but I will accept it with NO SHAME.  I will know that I tried to Help (and as of now still do) contribute to Save the Salt and like many of you patiently await them to publicly give Us some sort of progress report in the next few days.  No facts or figures are necessary at this point, just please update us truthfully on where We currently stand, what is on the near Horizon and what if any progress has been accomplished since June, 2014.
  I can't and don't speak for anyone but myself but a few paragraphs of information would be enough for Me personally to pledge to each and everyone of you working actively in Save The Salts inner circle to give you as much time and money as I can muster, and to go along with your plan if I first know what that plan is.
  Speaking for my self only, Without open public communication soon from STS, I unfortunately will have to withdraw any support  of STS, which means very little to your effort and may bring only disdain to myself but I can live with that knowing that I tried to help.
                                                                                                                   Bob Drury

[4-barrel Mike]

 Mike that's pretty interesting but the date on the heading of the article being tomorrow  which it is now in the U.K. (proving to Stan that the Earth is indeed round).

Mike, me?  What article?  I'm confused.   

Mike