Studies Dredge IMC Kalium Relies on Ellicott Bucketwheel Dredge at World's Lowest Cost Phosphate Mine With an annual capacity of over ten million short tons, IMC Kalium is among the world's leading and lowest-cost producers of potash. IMC Kalium's potash products were sold in more than 20 countries during 1997. It produces a high purity white muriate of potash primarily for industrial markets. To recover the potash, the Belle Plaine mine uses an Ellicott B-490 electric powered bucketwheel dredge which has performed reliably for years. Concurrently, solution is pumped into a 130-acre cooling pond where additional crystallization occurs and the resulting product is recovered via the Ellicott floating dredge.
Refined potash is de-watered, dried and sized.
The crushed ore is then mixed with brine, a salty solution, and pumped through 10-mesh screens, which are about the size of household window screens. Larger particles diverted by the screen go to Heavy Media. Smaller particles drop through and go to Flotation. In a state of the art computerized central control room, fluctuations in the surface operations are continually monitored to ensure quality products. In this process, the unseparated larger particles of potash and salt are mixed with brine and magnetite.