Lithium Mining at the Edge of DV

[DAW89446]

These styles of mines will look similar to Trona and Silver Peak.

I worked at the plants in Trona 1987-2004. I was a plant operator for six years, in soda ash production. The majority of other products were produced in the same manner.

In the case of soda ash production, brine is pumped from deep below the surface of Searles Lake and into carbonators; there being six 1,000,000 gallon tanks. In the tanks, CO2 - drawn off large rotary kilns downstream - percolated into the brine, stirred by a big paddle run by a 4,160V, 1,000 HP motor. This started a crystallization process. The resulting thin slurry was pumped over to the bicarb area, where rotary filters up high on catwalks sucked the liquid out by huge vacuum pumps down below on the surface. In my days in process, the wet sand-like bicarbonate of soda dropped into a pre-dryer, a 100' long rotary kiln, heated with 15# steam; just as I was ending my tenure in process tests were done to see if eliminating this step would cause any issues and later eliminated from the process. At the other end of the pre-dryer, semi dried bicarbonate of soda dropped through conveyors to the main dryer, the same size and heated with 450# steam. Afterward, it went up elevators and over to the mono-hydrate process of recrystallization and bleaching to finish and then carried by elevators and conveyors over to shipping.

On the bicarb side, all "spent liquor," or liquid that has been stripped of usable mineral value, is sent back to the dry lake to be reinjected back into the strata. Basically, every gallon that is pumped out of the brine aquafer must be replaced or else Searles Valley would eventually subside upon itself. The vast majority of reinjected liquid was sourced from spent liquor. That liquid would percolate through the strata, picking up new minerals. The process allowed near indefinite sustainability, or so said the scientists.

Fresh water for the plants and homes in Trona primarily come from the Indian Wells Valley. There are pipelines that tap into nearby springs as well as brackish ground water. Brackish water is used primarily in the plants for cleaning and non domestic use. Most of it is collected and stored at Valley Wells for distribution.

Back in the old days, when I first came to Trona, Kerr-McGee owned the plants and Valley Wells was the recreation spot of the valley. Swimming, golf, tennis, basketball, baseball and employee family days with lots of activities, prizes, food, fun and music were conducted at Valley Wells. The big reservoir was the community pool, the "island" often had bands playing, especially prior to my arrival and back through the earlier decades of the 20th century.

After KMCC sold out to North American Chemical Company, that company downsized, modernized, cannibalized, abandoned and demolished over the years of ownership. For instance, potash was processed via pump, carbonate, filter, dry. The figures I remember hearing were approximately $200 per ton to make. The machinery was among the oldest in the plant and equipment used no longer available, so cannibalization of old equipment was done long before NACC came along. NACC had far larger holdings on the Great Salt Lake flats and used solar dying methods and made potash for basically pennies per ton. So those areas were shut down and eventually those large buildings, huge silos, shipping equipment for truck and railroad eventually were demolished. Look at ariel views of Trona's plants from, say, the 1970s and today. It looks emaciated now.