Pub. 8 2018 Issue 3

21 MINING FOCUS Getting Enough Food In the future, specific circumstances will have an effect on the availability of arable land and the demand for commodities. One of the greatest threats is a decrease in arable land that can no longer be used for food production. People are using arable land for other purposes, wind and water are eroding topsoil away, and urbanization sometimes means that the agriculture land base gets paved over. Along with the growing population is also the growing desire to eat like people in the industrialized western nations such as the U.S. As the number of people in the world increases, and as those people change their diets to match that of the U.S., Canada, or western Europe, they eat more grains and oilseeds. In addition, producing beef, pork, and chicken often means using grain to feed the animals, and one pound of grain doesn’t equal one pound of meat. Cows are the worst: you have to feed them seven pounds of grain to get a pound of beef. Pigs and chickens need less (four pounds and two pounds, respectively). The reality is that farmers are going to have to come up with new, innovative practices that help them get the most possible use out of farmland, and they will also have to plant every possible acre. Because we have to grow more food on less land while using smaller amounts of fresh water, the question becomes: how do farmers grow enough for everyone? This is obviously an overwhelming task — and one that could still use considerable improvement. No one should ever go hungry or starve for lack of food. However, when people do get fed well it is because of a humble fertilizer you’ve probably never given a thought to: potash. Potash plays a central role in helping feed the world's growing population. Potash 101 Potash is a fertilizer that is made from potassium (K). Potash got its name in Europe where there was a long tradition of burning wood or seaweed and leaching the ashes in water. People used large iron pots to evaporate water from the solution, and the remaining hard, white residue was named “pot ash.” In the ground, potash ore consists of red and white crystals that have traces of clay and other impurities. The mineral is soft and has a tendency to crumble. When it is first exposed to air, potash ore looks silvery. Processing turns it white, but impurities can give it a pink color. The mineral's name refers to several forms of potassium salt. Potassium Chloride (KCl) is the most important one because farmers use it in combination with two other fertilizers, nitrogen and phosphate, to increase the yield of their crops. For example, these fertilizers are an important tool for farmers who grow coffee, corn, rice, and soybeans. In compound form, the Earth’s crust has an abundant supply of potassium— in fact, the crust only has six other elements that are more abundant than potassium. Unfortunately, however, the potassium compounds — potash — that we can extract economically are more uncommon. Twelve countries have good enough deposits to produce potash. The top five producers, in order, are Canada, Russia, Belarus, Germany, and the U.S. Here in the U.S., two potash mines are located in Utah (Moab and Wendover). Saskatchewan, Canada has 50% of the available potash reserves, which is enough to provide potash to the world for several hundred years. Its current global production capacity is 37%. The next four largest producers are, in order, Israel, People used large iron pots to evaporate water from the solution, and the remaining hard, white residue was named “pot ash.” POTASH continued on page 22