Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-03-29
POTASH IN BoRAx LAKE.
Probable Source Of Inexhaustible Sup
ply In California.

J POTASH IN BORAx LAKE.
Probable Source of lnexhaustible Sup.
ply In California.
The two Federal bureaus engaged ir
the search for potash-the bureau OF
soils Of the department of agriculture
ard the geological survey Of the de-
partment of the interior-are in receipt
OF promising telegraphic news from
their field representatives. A potash
deposit of apparently great Importance
has been discovered at Borax OF
lSearles lake, in the northwestern cor
ner of San Bernardino county, Califor-
mia. This lake or playa Is the last re-
maining pocket Of a once much great
er lake, which has almost dried up
and its central depression contains
large body of crystalline salts known
Ito consist of common salt and sulphate
land carbonate Of soda with smaller
Quantities of borax. This salt body is
saturated with brine, and interested
persons, stimulated by the govern
mental search for potash recently Sc
cured an analysis of old sample mate
rial from this brine. The result be-
ing significant, the lake was visited
Jointly by representatives Of the geo.
logical survey and Of the bureau OF
soils, who took brine samples from six
wells distributed over the salt fiat.
Analyses Of these samples have been
made b. the cooperative laboratory at
the Mackay School Of Mines, at Reno,
New, and show an average Of 6.78 per
cent of potassium oxide (KaO) In So
Ilution. The average salinlty Of the
brine Is 1882 grams Of solids per one
hundred centimetres. Comparison OF
the results indicates that the brines are
nearly uniform throughout the fiat.
The probable Importance Of the depos-
1t Is due to the occurrence Of the po-
tassium salts in soluble form In a
natural saturated brine, and under cli-
matte and other conditions especially
favorable to its separation and recov-
cry by solar evaporation. Existing
data give reasonable assurance that
the brine saturated salt body Is at
least so feet thick and covers an area
of at least eleven square miles. AS
suming the salt body to contain 25 per
cent by volume of the brine, the total
amount of potassium oxide Is estimat-
ed at over four million short tons.
This estimate Is believed to be very
conservative and the available tonnage
may we'll be expected to exceed ten
million tons, which would supply the
country, at the present rate Of con-
sumption of potash, for thirty years.
At any rate. it appears that this local
ity constitutes a very important source
of potash in probably readily availa-
BILE commercial form.
Methods Of separating potash from
brines are now under investigation by
the bureau Of soils.
Borax lake, or Searles lake, Is one OF
the many playas or intermittently wet
and dry lakes common throughout the
arid regions of the west. 1t lies be-
tween the Argus and State ranges, In
the Mohave desert Of southern Califor-
mia. Borax lake was the original scene
of the famous 20-mule team borax
mine, the borax being hauled in great
wagons drawn by twenty to twenty
eight mules to the Southern Pacific
railroad at Mohave, distance OF 80
miles. The lake or fiat is about ten
miles long and five miles wide, and has
received the drainage from the sur
rounding hills for many thousands OF
years, vast quantities Of dissolved min
erals being thus concentrated In II.
The water has been evaporated under
the intense heat Of the long, hot sea-
sons, but the, salts have remained, so
that for most of the year. In fact. often
Throughout the year, the bed Is a glis-
tening plain of white salts, In attempt
ing to cross which under a brazen sun
men have lost their lives.
The mirage plays its strange tricks
here, and at the driest places the trav-
eler can generally see what appears to
be a broad expanse Of water covering
the bed a little way ahead-always
little distance off, until he approaches
the shore Of Borax lake. Then when
| he looks behind him, he sees the water
apparently covering the ground over
which he has just come. The lake oc-
cupies a valley made by faults-breaks
and slips in the earth's crust-where
great area has been dropped down.
Borings have been made through the
mud and water underlying the lake to
depth Of some hundreds of feet, the
deepest borings made bringing up hot
mud
A reconnaissance Of the general re-
gion was made by one Of the biologists
of the United States geological survey
In 1900 and is described in the Sur
vey's Bulletin 200, now out of print.
Borax lake itself, however, was not
visited. The lake Is also shown on
map in Water Supply Paper 224 OF the
survey, Some Desert Watering Places
i'm Southeastern California and South
western Nevada" Its nearest railroad
Is the Owenyo branch of the Southern
Pacific, running from Mohave past
Owens lake. Borax lake Is situated
about twenty miles from the station OF
Searles, on this railroad.
Many useful and curious minerals
are found in the muds and other de-
posits of Borax lake, including, OF
course borax. Among them are gyp-
sum, glauberite, carbonate and sui
phate of soda, salt, thenardite and ham
skite The last carries as much as 2.33
per cent Of potassium, equivalent to
4.44 per cent Of potassium chloride.
| The salts are not evenly distributed
over the surface of the lake. Borax
was found plentifully over about three
square miles, common salt is every
where, and sodium carbonate and So
dunn sulphate are widely distributed.
One boring Is said to have passed
through % feet Of solid trona (hydrous
carbonate of soda) Of great purity. At
other places there Is 25 feet OF solid
i p,ixed auInhata and carbonate of soda,