Evening star., 1926-12-08
RICH POTASH FIND
/ IS MADE IN WEST
Deposits in New Mexico May
Make American Farmers In.
l. dependent of Europe.

The American farmer may be def
i1ftely relieved from paying tribute to
Germany and France by the discov'
cry, announced today by the Geo
logical Survey, of rich potash deposits
in eastern New Mexico.
These fields, it is said, may ap-
proach those of Stassfurt, in Ger
many, which now have practically a
world monopoly on potash and which
were the subject of Il recent Fra nco-
German understanding hr which the
American market was divided between
industrialists of the two countries.
Potash is one of the three essential
ingredients of fertilizer, the others be
ing nitrates and phosphates. America
has plenty of phosphates. and the
Muscle Shoals project promises to
place her in a position to secure her
own nitrate5. Hitherto she has had
no known extensive potash resources.
Small Deposits i'm California.
The potash imports from Europe
now amount to about $1,000 900 an
nually. A small amount is produced
at Searles Lake in California, the. bed
meets 10 per cent of the requirements.
The potash used In fertilizer. known
by the chemical symbol k20, exists in
number of mineral combna tions,
the most important of which is poly
halite. In the New Mexico beds were
found also sylvite, largbcinite kain'te
and hattie.
The existence of these beds. from
$50 to 500 feet below the surface.
oil prospecting company. which plans
to push the researches further The
beds thick enough for mining
average about I2.5 per cent. of k20.
it was stated, while the average run
of-the-mi materials at the Stassfurt
beds have d potash content of only s
to 10 per cent.
High Percentage Found.
At about 1,430 feet 17-inch bed
OF langhenite was struck which.
samples showed. contained about is
per cent K20. Langheinite at Stass-
furt is merely a mineral curiosity.
The richest bed disclosed was a two
foot layer of sylvite. 1865 feet below
the surface and containing 1875 per
cent pure potash.
Ten beds in all were revealed. They
ranged between IL inches and feet
in thickness.
1T must not be ina gined that this
Is simply lucky strike made at ran
DOM said DR.. G.. r. Mansfield of the
Geological Survey. we have be
leved for years that if paving potash
deposits were ever to he found in this
country the most likely place to seek
them would be the Panhandle region
of Texas and the adjacent corner of
New Mexico, and we have actually
been hunting for them there since
1915. We have received MANY indica
tions of the presence of potash. from
samples brought up by oil we'll drills
as we'll as from other sources. and re-
Gently Congress appropriated suffi-
c1ent money TO begin n really critical
investigation The present core drill
ing. however. the rrst of it's kind.
which gives us a really accurate pic
ture of what is under ground at that
point. was put down by the Snowden-
MCSWeenN 60. an oil concern, on
their own initiative and at their own
expense but in full cooperation with
the Geological Survey.
Area 500 by $50 Niles.
"Of course. we cannot tell from a
single core drilling how extensive the
new beds are. but we do know def
rich potash minerals exist at this
place, and our previous work. indi-
Gates that potash deposits Of some
sort exist in many places. distributed
over an area about 800 miles long by
about half as wide. in eastern New
Mexico and the Texas Panhandle We
hope to make further core driliinSs, to
obtain a better idea OF the extent of
the really rich deposits
l,o II i
by railroads. Two lines run through
it and three others have branches into
II at various points. Galveston is the
nearest saltwater port. but practical
bic hauls might also carry the product
to points in the Mississippi River
Geological Survey officials believe that
for certain types of soil the minerals
as they came from the shaft would
need only grinding to make them sat.
lsfactory fertilizers. but for long hauls
probably concentrating treatments
would be adViSa ble. to save bulk and
weight. More or less rock salt occurs
in between the layers of potash min
erals. but this can he picked out easily
by even the cheapest of labor.
The exact geological age of the de.
poSitS has not been determined. but
they are believed to belong to the Per.
mian. This was an age of drought
that interviewed between the Pennsyl-
ranian or coal age and the times of
the dinosaurs. The beds were prob
ably formed by a series of advances
and retreats of an arm Of the sea.
which formed great saltwater lakes
These dried in the arid climate. Just
as the Caspian Sea. or. on a smaller
scale, the saline lakes Of the West. are
drying up today. and as they did so
the various chemicals in solution were
preCipitated. The less soluble ones,
like the compounds of lime and pot
ash. came down first. and the easily
soluble common sea salt only at the
end of each drying out. SO that layers
of salt now alternate with layers of
potash and other minerals