Those are Potash ponds...Originally Posted by ScorpionCrawler
Moab
The Moab or Cane Creek potash mine (38°31′20″N 109°39′32″W) is located along the right (northwest) bank of the Colorado River, about 20 miles (30 km) west of Moab, Utah,[3] at the south end of State Route 279 and the Cane Creek Subdivision of the Union Pacific Railroad. The location is known as Potash on U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) topographic maps, and is east of Dead Horse Point State Park and Canyonlands National Park.[4] According to USGS reports, the Paradox Basin contains up to 2.0 billion tons (1.8 billion metric tonnes) of potash, with the primary mine being the one at Cane Creek.[5]
The plant was built by the Texas Gulf Sulphur Company in the early 1960s,[6] opening in 1963 as a conventional underground mine.[7] Later that year, an explosion trapped 25 miners,[8] of whom only seven were able to survive, by building a barricade to trap fresh air.[9] 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.[3] Intrepid bought the mine in 2000[10] from the Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan,[11] which had bought Texas Gulf in 1995.[12]
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