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Forgot Password?With our extensive portfolio of crushing and feeding machines, TerraSource Global is a key partner to a wide variety of companies operating in the mining, power and forest products markets. One of our most prominent mining applications is “potash,” (potassium chloride, or KCI), a critical ingredient in fertilizers used in the agricultural industry for crops such as grains, fruits and vegetables, oilseeds, sugar, cotton, and more. Naturally occurring deposits of potash are often found combined with sodium chloride, better known as common table salt, as well as clays.
While there are potash reserves across the globe, the most prominent deposits are found in Canada and Russia. Potash varies substantially depending on where it is mined, causing an assortment of challenges based on the properties of the materials and local conditions. Potash is typically mined in three different ways:
Given these processes, the most common challenges include:
In the early days of potash processing, hammermills were used as the standard machine under the compactor, no matter where the site was located. Even though hammermills are able to produce decent quality flakes, they are far from the ideal choice to achieve maximum yield due to their inability to control the excessive production of fines.
In order to mitigate these issues, potash producers need to partner with an equipment vendor with the appropriate amount of application expertise, service capabilities and precision machinery to improve product throughput and quality based on an operation’s specific expectations, material conditions and processes.
Around the world, TerraSource Global equipment is installed both underground and at the surface potash mines. Our portfolio of equipment is used at multiple stages of potash processing, including:
Our rugged Gundlach brand roll crushers and Cage Paktors® and Pennsylvania Crusher brand impact and roll crushers are especially well-suited for sizing various forms of potash due to our custom configurations and specially forged steel that tolerates extreme crushing conditions. Operations have minimal reprocessing and waste material after running the product through our crushers, allowing customers to achieve a finer product than other commonly used machines while also substantially reducing utility usage:
By installing larger rolls in these crushers, you are able to achieve higher capacity with higher throughput.
Our Jeffrey Rader vibratory feeders are also a great choice for reliable, efficient feeding dry or run of mine (ROM) potash into crushers. By using these machines, potash operations are more likely to have uniform crushing with less fines and maximum yield.
The best way to evaluate the ideal crushing and processing solutions for your materials is to set up an appointment with our Demonstration and Testing Center. Our team of application experts will work with you to determine your ideal end-product, and what machines and configurations are required to achieve these results. Following testing, we will provide you with a complete data-driven analysis and recommendations for your operation. Gundlach started sizing potash in the 1960s, so you can feel secure know our team has over 50 years of knowledge and experience backing up our recommendations.
By Phil Schaefer
Philip.schaefer@terrasource.com