Intrepid Potash, Inc., based in Denver, Colorado, is America’s largest producer of potassium chloride, also known as muriate of potash. It owns three mines, in the wild west of the U.S.: Carlsbad, New Mexico, Moab, Utah, and Wendover, Utah.
The site in Moab, Utah is the one pictured here. The Moab plant was built by the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company in the early 60s as a conventional underground mine. Later that year, an explosion trapped 25 miners, and only seven were able to survive, They managed to build a barricade to trap fresh air.
In 1970, operations were changed to a system that combines solution mining and solar evaporation. River water is pumped into the mine and dissolves the potash, after which the brine solution is pumped to evaporation ponds.
And it looks lovely:
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