How potash is mined

Potash is named for ash boiled in a pot. Today it is dug from beds left by seas that dried up long ago.

stations: 3
things downstream: 5

The short version

Potash is a family of potassium salts, mostly potassium chloride, found in underground beds where ancient inland seas evaporated. Mines cut the ore from those beds, and mills crush it and separate the potassium salt from the common salt mixed through it. Most of it goes to farms as fertilizer.

Mine the buried salt beds

Potash ore is a natural mixture of sylvite, which is potassium chloride, and halite, which is table salt. The beds lie underground, covered over by later rock, and are reached by shafts.
Crush the ore

Ore is brought to the surface and crushed so the potassium and sodium salts can be told apart.
Split the potash from salt

Plants separate the potassium salt from the sodium chloride and clay, then grade it by particle size. Most is sold as fertilizer.

End of the linePotash Next it goes into fertilizer, smartphone cover glass, potassium hydroxide.

Worth repeating

The word potash comes from pot ash, plant ashes soaked in water in a pot.
Potash was mined in Ethiopia from the 14th century, and the Dallol area still holds a deposit of 140 to 150 million tons.