Although trucks are a vital link in OCI’s transportation system, rail cars still carry most of the company’s bulk soda ash output. OCI loads 60 to 65 100-ton cars per day and also contracts about 10 percent of its haul to BTI of Riverton.
Photo by Don Warfield
Money in mud
Unique Wyoming bentonite backs 1,000 workers
From staff and wire reports
Wyoming’s bentonite industry mined 6.1 million tons and milled 4.9 million tons of bentonite in 2006, with 798 mine and mill employees, and some 250 contractor employees.
The major markets for Wyoming bentonite are absorbents, animal feed, drilling fluids, foundry, iron ore pelletizing, and sealants.
Demand for Wyoming bentonite as an absorbent in pet litter has seen real growth in recent years, and it may become the largest single market for Wyoming bentonite.
Wyoming bentonite’s drilling mud lubricates oilfield drilling equipment and helps prevent caving of the drill hole.
Currently, the largest market for Wyoming bentonite is in the foundry industry as a molding sand binder. The molds are then used to cast engine blocks and other items.
Another use of Wyoming bentonite is for binding iron pellets, which are later fed into a blast furnace for processing.
Bentonite also is used to seal reservoirs and landfills. Other uses include crayons, medicines, and the first use of Wyoming bentonite — cosmetics, as practiced before the history of the state.
There are three major economic geologic areas of production of swelling bentonite in Wyoming:
• The Clay Spur areas around Upton and Newcastle;
• The Colony area in the northeast corner of Wyoming;
• Along the east and west flanks of the Big Horn Range.
Currently, bentonite deposits in Wyoming make up 70 percent of the world’s known supply.
Marion Loomis of the Wyoming Mining Association said it is economical to mine bentonite as deep as 50 feet.
Bentonite is produced worldwide in Greece, Japan, Italy, Brazil, Romania, Germany, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, India, Hungary, Poland, Canada, Turkey, and Cyprus.
Within the U.S., bentonite is produced in Wyoming, Montana, California, Arizona and Texas.
Industry leaders point out that Wyoming bentonite products possess unique characteristics rarely found anywhere else.
For example, Wyoming bentonite can swell up to 16 times its original size, and absorb up to 10 times its own weight in water. This is mostly due to the presence of sodium instead of calcium, more commonly found in bentonite.
It is believed the sodium in Wyoming’s bentonite was created by high concentrations of sodium ions in the seawater where volcanic ash settled eons ago.
In scientific terms, the atomic lattice structure of Wyoming bentonite consists of repetitive layers of aluminum hydroxide atoms bonded or held between layers of silicate atoms.
The resulting platelets are stacked upon each other much like a deck of cards, allowing water to penetrate between the platelets, and inducing swelling.
If room to swell does not exist, a thick gel forms. Wyoming bentonite consists of hydrous silicate of alumina, more commonly known as montmorillonite clay.
Wyoming bentonite is transported to countries in every area around the world.
For example, Japan, Korea, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Australia, Russia, Mexico, and many countries in Europe and South America all use Wyoming bentonite.
Loomis said Wyoming’s bentonite industry “faces challenges from international sources,” along with partial substitution by polymers in iron ore pelletizing, new oil and gas drilling methods, and market swings in demand for durable goods and energy exploration which in turn drive demand for Wyoming bentonite.
Sold out trona patch
Fast times return for Wyoming’s soda ash
By Don Warfield
Mining Edition Writer
For Wyoming’s trona industry, the tough times of not too many years ago seem to have lessened, and prospects are looking up.
One of the better signs is the price of soda ash, which is currently about $100 per ton. That is nearly double the industry’s darkest hours of a decade or so ago.
Demand is strong, too. The industry dug up a little more than 18 million tons of trona last year. Most companies report that they are selling every bit of soda ash they can produce from that ore.
In a sign of the times, FMC has reopened its idled Granger facility, using solution mining to produce just over 600,000 tons last year.
Glass-making appears to still be the industry’s largest market, with household products running an important second.
Strong demand is good for Wyoming and the United States as well as the industry. About 90 percent of the U.S. soda ash output comes from Wyoming’s Green River Basin,
despite long transportation distances to the West Coast,
Export success
Wyoming soda ash is successfully competing overseas. For some companies, the export market can account for almost half of the output, while for others, exports account for as little as a third of sales. The Pacific Rim remains a primary export market for most companies, but South America is another good customer. China remains a wild card in the international soda ash game.
China produces synthetic soda ash, so much so that the country has become the world’s largest producer. Some U.S. industry experts think that the Chinese industry is under-performing and barely able to meet its own domestic demand.
That means that China must make up any shortfall from imports, including from Wyoming and U.S. production.
But beyond its own domestic situation, there is no question that the Chinese want to compete in the global soda ash market. The Chinese government has adopted an age-old strategy to do that: It gives its soda ash industry a 13 percent tax rebate on exports. Assuming that the Chinese industry increases production sufficiently to have product available for export, its favorable tax status could give it a considerable competitive edge.
Before his death June 4, Wyoming U.S. Sen. Craig Thomas was hard at work trying to convince the Chinese to adopt a more free-market position and drop its tax rebate tactic. At present, however, the trade barrier remains in place.
o their credit, Wyoming and the federal government have recognized the struggles of the trona industry and stepped in to give at least some temporary help. During the trona industry’s nadir, soda ash was a losing proposition.
With prices hovering around $60 per ton, the industry was losing money, and in some cases, tottering on the edge of bankruptcy. State government froze the escalation of its taxes on trona ore at the mine mouth for a period of five years to give the industry some relief.
After many years of effort during the industry’s difficult years, Thomas convinced the U.S. government to lower royalty rates on trona mined from federal leases from 6 to 2 percent.
Trona’s bad times are fading in Wyoming memories. What no one in the industry forgets, and what officials hope Wyoming does not completely forget, is that rising costs and declining prices nearly killed the industry only a few years ago. Yet, the industry hung on, to the benefit not only of the companies, but to the thousands of employees who kept jobs and the state and local government that kept receiving taxes and royalties.
The industry is proud of another accomplishment that may be the most important of all. Most companies are reporting welcome success with improved safety programs. Reportable injury rates and MSHA citations are down, in some cases dramatically, and mine rescue teams are picking up bragging rights at regional and national competitions.
