POTASH
BY HOYT S. GALE AND A. W. STOCKETT
NATURE AND USES OF POTASH
The term potash is commonly used to designate any of the salts of the
element potassium, particularly those soluble in water, which are
largely used in agriculture and manufacturing. The element potassium
is widely distributed as a component of rocks, soils, and vegetable
and animal substances, but large quantities of potassium salts in
forms suitable for the uses of man have been found in only a few
places. Ashes of wood, which were formerly the principal source of
potash in commerce, now supply an inconsiderable part of the world’s
requirements. Since 1860, the principal, in fact almost the only,
commercial source of potash salts has been the immense deposits in
northern Germany. The crude potassium salts obtained from these
deposits by mining operations are used either as fertilizer in the
form in which they are taken from the ground, or are purified by
crystallization or manufactured into various compounds of potassium
needed for both agriculture and other industrial uses.
Use in agriculture as an ingredient of the so-called artificial or
chemical fertilizers accounts for 90 per cent. or more of the world’s
consumption. Potassium is not only one of the ten or more chemical
elements essential to plant life, but of these ten it is one of three
that frequently become so lacking in soils that the yield of crops is
not profitable. Even if potassium exists in soils, it may be and often
is present in some form not readily available for plant use, so that
the addition of fresh, readily water-soluble salts of potassium shows
prompt reaction in stimulating the growth of the crop. In a general way
potash is supposed to supply a necessary plant food, that strengthens
the stalk and fills the kernels of the growing plant. Also it is a
general belief that some destructive plant diseases, such as blight and
rust of cotton and potatoes, are largely favored by improper nutrition
as well as by poor physical condition of the soil, for which potash
seems to be a specific. Thus the so-called potash industry, by which is
meant the mining and marketing of the principal or commonest compounds
of potash, is based chiefly on use in agriculture.
The other uses of the salts of potassium are many and diverse. Most
of the potassium salts have properties similar to the corresponding
salts of sodium, and for most industrial purposes the salts of these
two elements may be interchanged, a generalization which does not,
however, apply to any extent whatever to the agricultural application
of potassium. Some industrial preferences for the potassium salt depend
on more favorable physical properties of the potassium over the sodium
salt, such as a less tendency of the potassium salt to absorb moisture
from the air. Other preferences depend on slight chemical differences,
as for instance a somewhat greater solubility, which renders the
purification of the potassium salt more easy. During the scarcity and
high prices of the wartime period many substitutions have been made,
which either directly or by some modification of practice are now
proving so satisfactory that they will probably be continued.
One of the most urgent demands for potash has come from the match
manufacturers. Potassium chlorate is an important ingredient of most
matches, and this use consumes a surprisingly large amount of potash.
Certain varieties of glass, especially cut glass tableware (flint
glass) and some optical glass, are made from potash, generally in the
form known as glass-makers’ carbonate. Most soap is made from soda,
but potash (as caustic or hydroxide) is used for some of the finer
grades, such as shaving, toilet, and shampoo soaps, especially the
liquid forms. Caustic potash has had a considerable use in laundries,
and for the scouring or washing of wool. The old form of black powder
was made from potash as potassium nitrate or saltpeter; hence the
commonly assumed military importance of potash. Black powder, though
now largely superseded by modern high-explosive powders, still has a
relatively small though nevertheless important application in modern
warfare. There are other uses, which, though requiring a small total
amount, include some important requirements, among these being the
medicinal or pharmaceutical, tannery, dye, photographic, electroplate,
and metallurgical needs.
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION
The great deposits of potash in northern Germany underlie an extensive
area in the Prussian provinces of Saxony, Hanover, and in the duchies
of Anhalt and Brunswick. The most important mining regions lie in
an area practically encircling the Harz Mountains, 75 to 150 miles
southwest of Berlin, and 100 to 150 miles south to southeast of
Hamburg. This area is outlined more exactly on the accompanying index
map (Fig. 14).
The field originally opened at Stassfurt has since been explored
by deep boring and developed by the sinking of mining shafts, with
the result that there has now been outlined an estimated reserve
of 20,000,000,000 metric tons of crude potash salts, which at the
present rate of the world’s consumption should be sufficient to last
almost 2,000 years. Thus for all practical purposes the field may be
considered as inexhaustible.
[Illustration: FIG. 14.--Distribution of potash deposits in northern
Germany.]
In 1904 another important and extensive deposit of water-soluble potash
salts was discovered by boring in the valley of the Rhine River in
southern Alsace. Alsace, then in possession of Germany, has now been
restored to France. The deposit is in two essentially continuous beds
that underlie within accessible depth an area of 70 to 80 square miles
of the flat bottom lands of the Rhine Valley. The beds are estimated
to contain about 1,500,000,000 metric tons of crude potash salts,
which average considerably richer in potash than the output of the
north German deposits, and, being of simpler chemical composition, are
more readily refined. The mines opening these deposits are readily
accessible to water transportation by way of the Rhine River and the
canals of the Rhine Valley. The distance to ocean ports is considerably
longer than it is from the north German deposits, being about 375
miles, as compared with 150 miles by canal and river boats from the
latter, but the amount of handling necessary to transport similar
cargoes from the two districts seems to be about the same. The deposit
in Alsace lies in an elliptical area centering about 5 miles northwest
of the city of Mulhouse.
Some potash has been produced from a deposit in Galicia, near Kalusz,
south of Lemberg, from deposits reported to be of a type similar to
those of north Germany, but the field has never yielded even enough
potash to satisfy the local demand, and is thought not to be large.
During the war relatively small outputs of potash salts were obtained
from many independent sources, in the United States, Abyssinia, Tunis,
and other countries. Under stress of war necessities and the complete
shutting off of other supplies, these outputs in the aggregate formed
a considerable amount. Much of the development probably will not be
permanent, when strict competition with the potash from more available
sources is renewed, but each of these fields and doubtless many others
contain the possibilities of development that may give the world
situation a new aspect at any time. Chief among the most immediate
prospects for important development is a rather extensive field in
eastern Spain, near Barcelona. This field has not as yet produced on
a commercial scale. One estimate of the reserves in the Spanish field
claims a proved area of 13.5 square miles containing 200,000,000 tons
of potassium oxide.
The nitrate deposits of Chile contain a small percentage of potash, and
this is being recovered separately from the sodium nitrate at several
of the refineries. It has been estimated that a total production of
240,000 tons of potassium oxide annually might be derived from this
source.
Many different sources in the United States are yielding potash salts.
The largest known deposit of soluble potash in fairly concentrated
form is at Searles Lake, California. This is a dried saline lake,
now represented by a bed of crystalline salts with a large amount of
saturated brine rich in potash. The body of salts carrying the brine
underlies an area of about 25 square miles and extends to an average
depth of 70 feet. It is estimated that the brine alone in this deposit
carries nearly 20,000,000 tons of potassium oxide, which would be
enough potash to supply the needs of the country for about 60 years
at the present normal rate. Numerous small lakes in western Nebraska
carry brines exceptionally rich in potash, and these are now yielding
a considerable production of potash fertilizer salts. No satisfactory
estimate of the reserves in this field is available.
Under present operating conditions about one-third of the annual
requirements of the United States is recoverable from the cement mills.
About 380,000 short tons of potash, most of which is volatilized, is
annually charged into the blast furnaces of the country. The best
available estimates indicate that about 30,000 tons of potash have
formerly gone to waste in molasses distillery slop, and-about 8,000
tons in Steffens waste water at the beet-sugar refineries of the
country. Kelp and alunite are available in quantities sufficient to
continue to yield a substantial production. Enormous quantities of
leucite lava, carrying 10 per cent. of potash in an insoluble silicate
form; greensand carrying 6 to 7 per cent. of insoluble potash; sericite
with from 7 to 12 per cent., and feldspar with similar content, are
available as raw materials of production if satisfactory commercial
processes can be developed. Thus potential supplies of potash in the
United States are practically inexhaustible. The future of the American
potash industry, therefore, depends on the development of processes or
methods of separation economical enough to permit the domestic product
to compete with imported potash.
GEOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION
The potash deposits of northern Germany lie in the midst of a series
of formations known as the Zechstein, the geologic age of which is
Permian. Both the Alsatian and Spanish deposits are found in Oligocene
Tertiary rocks, although the deposits were not necessarily strictly
synchronous in origin. The Galician deposits are described as of lower
Miocene (Tertiary) age. These are the principal known bedded deposits
of potash in the world, for which as a class the distinction as to
geologic age seems to have a special significance. The association
of potash with the large salt and gypsum deposits of the world seems
for some reason to have been exceptional in geologic history. But the
determination that these somewhat analogous occurrences have been
formed at various times and places is a good basis for expecting that
similar deposits may yet be discovered elsewhere.
CHANGES IN COMMERCIAL PRACTICE
Before the war the world’s consumption of potash was practically
the measure of the German production, the statistics of which are
available in considerable detail. In round numbers, Germany produced
about 10,000,000 metric tons of potash salts, averaging about 10
per cent. of K₂O, of which she used more than 60 per cent. at home,
and exported about 25 per cent. to the United States. For two years
a very small production from Alsace had been lumped with the rest.
Shortly after the outbreak of the war the German government placed an
embargo on the export of potash, presumably in the hope of thereby
injuring crop production of the Allies, and possibly because of the
small military significance that it has. The production of potash
in Germany was continued, however, at practically the same rate as
before the war, the portion formerly exported being distributed for
fertilizer use at home. This naturally gave a tremendous stimulus to
the efforts of other countries to develop sources of potash. Although
no huge natural resources comparable to the already known deposits
were discovered, the efforts nevertheless had a reasonable amount of
success, so that the world has not suffered in any vital way because
of deprivation of potash. The cost of potash in the United States and
its Allied countries increased to as much as ten times the pre-war
price, but the supply was sufficient to meet all of the most pressing
needs. Many possibilities for production from various sources have been
opened, for which it is still too soon to predict the final outcome. It
appears that a number of these new enterprises have entered the field
permanently, although there will necessarily be some uncertainty during
the period of reconstruction.
The ceding of Alsace to France, which is discussed in a subsequent
paragraph, undoubtedly entails the largest and most significant change
in the commercial situation as regards the world market for potash.
A possibility of production from the deposits in eastern Spain holds
similar although more remote significance.
SOURCES OF PRODUCTION
The output of potash during 1917, summarized by countries according to
the best available data, is as follows:
TABLE 65.--WORLD PRODUCTION OF POTASH IN 1917
-------------+--------------------------------+----------+-----------
| |Production| Average
| | (short |content K₂O
Country | Source of data | tons) |(per cent.)
-------------+--------------------------------+----------+-----------
Germany |Kalisyndikat statistics. | 9,853,171| 11.2
Alsace |(Included under Germany.) | |
United States|U. S. Geological Survey. | 126,961| 25.6
India |Rec. Geol. Surv. India, vol. 49,| |
|part 2, p. 71. | 23,838| 40.0[155]
Tunis |Jour. Soc. Chem. Ind., vol. 37, | |
|p. 294 T. | 20,000| 40.0
Galicia |“Kali,” vol. 7, p. 9. | 10,000| 10.0
Russia |War Industrial Comm. of Russia | |
|report. | 5,000|
Abyssinia |Com. Fertilizer, Jan. 18, 1918, | |
|p. 44. | 5,000| ?
Japan |Commerce Rept., Dec. 1, 1916, p.| |
|830. | 4,000| ?
Chile |U. S. imports potassium nitrate.| 1,750| 25.0[155]
China |Commerce Rept., Nov. 27, 1918, | |
|p. 790. | 1,000|
France |Saline-de-Giraud. | 300|
Mexico |U. S. imports saltpeter. | 115| 40.0[155]
England |Kelp and blast furnace | |
|recoveries. | ? | ?
Spain | | No production
-------------+--------------------------------+----------------------
Total | |10,051,135
-------------+--------------------------------+----------------------
[155] Estimated from data indicated.
POLITICAL AND COMMERCIAL CONTROL
=Germany.=--The potash industry in Germany is reported to have
represented an investment of M.500,000,000 ($119,000,000). In 1918
there were 209 mines capable of producing, as indicated by the
Kalisyndikat list assigning quotas for anticipated production from the
individual mines for the year.
Most of these mines are privately owned under a variety of laws in the
several German states and provinces. Originally the developments are
said to have taken place under various local regulations; for example,
in Hanover the mining rights belonged to the property holders, in
Saxony the prospecting rights were free and the mining concessions
belonged to the first discoverer of the deposits without regard to the
owner of the surface soil, and in Anhalt mining was at first declared
to be a state monopoly, which was later contracted to a few private
companies. Some properties are, however, owned and operated by the
state. The Prussian government owns mines at Stassfurt, Bleicherode,
and Vienenburg; the Duchy of Anhalt has large works at Leopoldshall;
and the Duchy of Brunswick holds interest in some potash properties.
Two instances of participation by American concerns in the German
industry are known. The International Agricultural Corporation, an
American company organized in 1909, was for a time the owner of all
the capital stock of the Sollstedt Works in Germany. Later, one-half
interest in this American corporation was transferred to the Kaliwerke
Aschersleben, another German concern, under conditions which seemed
to complicate the matter of ownership. The Virginia-Carolina Chemical
Co., of Richmond, Virginia, is reported to have purchased a controlling
interest in the Einigkeit Works, presumably by a direct cash
transaction.
Under a law of the German Reichstag, known as the potash act of the
25th of May, 1884, an obligatory control of the potash industry in
Germany was ordained. A common agency, known as the Kalisyndikat, was
established, to represent all of the mines, with power to control the
opening of new mines, the output of each mine, and the selling prices
of potash salts. The industry has thus become a trust re-enforced by
the German government, although the private ownership of individual
properties remains. This syndicate differs from an American syndicate
in that it is formed for a limited period of time, in the present case
5 years, and its working capital is small, only enough to provide
for the actual working needs of the organization. The object of the
syndicate is to prevent disastrous competition, to insure that the
supply will conform to the demand, and that reasonable profits may be
obtained by producers.
The mines or works composing the potash syndicate, as with most mining
syndicates in Germany, may be either of the limited liability sort, the
shares of which are not assessable, or those whose capital stock is
divided into shares called “kuxe,” which are assessable at anytime and
are of unlimited liability. The shares of both kinds are dealt in on
the exchanges in the large cities of Germany.
Each company that is a member of a German syndicate has its
representative on the board of management of the trust, and
this board fixes the quota of production allowed each mine, and
generally administers the affairs of the entire combination under
its constitution and by-laws (statuten).[156] The constitution and
by-laws must be signed by each concern entering the syndicate and
the provisions therein contained strictly observed under penalties
enforceable in courts of law.
[156] Abstract from Daily Consular and Trade Reports, No. 265, vol.
4, Nov. 11, 1911, p. 760.
The weak point in this form of organization is the dissension that
often arises over the quotas allowed the different members. Each
company wants as large an allotment as it can get. Upon the expiration
of the life of a syndicate there is always uncertainty as to whether
it will be renewed, owing to competition among the various constituent
firms.
Before the war, under the terms of the contracts of the five large
fertilizer companies with the German potash syndicate, one-half of the
maximum discount allowed was deducted from the amount of the invoice
covering each shipment, and the remainder was paid to the buyer at the
end of each half year, provided he made a statement in writing to the
syndicate to the effect that he had purchased his entire requirements
of potash from the syndicate. Thus by allowing maximum discounts to
the large buyers, and preventing them from dealing in potash from
any source except the syndicate, this provision aimed to stifle the
development of any competitive sources of supply.
=Alsace.=--The potash deposits of Alsace were developed under the
German mining law for Alsace-Lorraine of December 16, 1843, amended
July 14, 1908, with specific reference to potash. Since the armistice
the German mines have been operated under the sequestration régime,
under charge of the French military authorities, directed by the
ministry of industrial reconstruction in France. Now that the treaty of
peace has been ratified by Germany, Alsace may be regarded as having
formally and finally passed into the possession of France, and with
this naturally the political and commercial control of the Alsatian
potash deposits. It remains therefore for the French Parliament to
determine what the final disposition of the former German ownership of
these properties shall be, and questions such as nationalization or
French-Alsatian control were being discussed in the summer of 1920.
Although most of the concessions in the Alsatian potash field had been
granted to German interests, the development was started by Alsatians,
and two of the concessions are in French-Alsatian ownership. These
have not been and probably will not be altered, unless they are to
enter some voluntary combination.
An agency for the sale and distribution of the Alsatian potash has been
arranged in the United States, and for the present at least the product
is coming in direct competition with the salts from the older German
mines.
=Spain.=--The potash deposits recently discovered in the provinces
of Barcelona and Lerida, of Cataluña, in eastern Spain, are subject
to special regulations of the Spanish government. A large area of
concessions already granted to private interests covers a considerable
part of the field outlined by exploratory borings. Operations on
these concessions are permitted, but the state reserves the right to
subordinate the exploitation to the interests of the country, and
impose special conditions in favor of the consumption of the potash
produced in Spain. Recently, unexplored state lands have been opened,
by royal decree, to bids for exploration and lease. The scheme follows
in general the plan of governmental control of the German potash
industry. According to it, all concessions for the working and sale
of salts are subject in many details to governmental control. Among
other conditions, working must be continuous save in certain exempted
circumstances; the state shall fix annually the home and export prices,
as well as the maximum and minimum quota for each mine.
=Other Countries.=--Before the war, the Austrian potash syndicate,
which consisted of the Austrian government and a group of capitalists,
controlled the deposits near Kalusz, in Galicia. No specific
governmental regulation is reported for the minor operations connected
with the production of potash in other countries.
SUMMARY
More than 90 per cent. of the potash handled in the world’s commerce
is used as a fertilizer. The rest is used as a chemical in various
industries, chief among which are the manufacture of matches, certain
kinds of glass and soap, and the better grades of black powder. The
uses specifically mentioned in this paragraph are essential, as no
satisfactory substitutes are known.
Up to 1914 practically all of the potash used in the world came
from the deposits in northern Germany, which are substantially
inexhaustible. Next in importance are the deposits of Alsace, which
contain enough potash to meet the world’s present demands for almost
300 years. Other resources are known in Spain, Galicia, Abyssinia, the
nitrate beds of Chile, and in deposits in the United States, but it is
too early to predict with assurance what part they will play in the
expansion of the potash industry.
Germany will no longer be able to maintain a world monopoly of the
potash market. The passing of control of the important resources in
Alsace from Germany to France foreshadows competition from recognized
adequate sources of supply. There are many other possibilities, the
mere potentialities of which are sufficient to restrain any tendency
to unreasonable extortion by those who control the German fields.
Moreover, attention has been so directed to the desirability of
developing independent sources, and so much able technical talent
is now being devoted toward bringing successful issue from the many
undertakings in progress, that it is very unlikely that this country,
or any other, will in the future be dependent on one or two arbitrarily
handled monopolies.