A Canadian company has developed a new, environmentally friendlier mechanism to produce potash without generating salt tailings and requiring no surface brine ponds.
According to Saskatoon-based Gensource Potash (TSX-V: GSP), the absence of tailings eliminates decommissioning risks, while not having ponds removes the single largest negative environmental impact of conventional potash mining.
The extraction method that Gensource has created injects a hot salt (NaCl) brine into horizontal caverns in the ore body, which selectively dissolves potash, (KCl) leaving salt in place.
The KCI-rich brine is then processed (KCI ‘drops out’ through cooling crystallization) and the NaCl brine is reheated and re-circulated back to the cavern to repeat the process.
For the rest of this article: https://www.mining.com/canadian-miner-develops-environmentally-friendly-way-to-produce-potash/