BIG RAPIDS – A 14,500 acre deposit of potash in North Central Michigan worth about $65 billion has been rediscovered that could position the state as a leading U.S. supplier of a key fertilizer used by farmers worldwide.
Western Michigan University’s Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education, working in conjunction with the company Michigan Potash, made the announcement, which was reported by MLive.Com. The deposit is in Mecosta and Osceola counties around Big Rapids.
Michigan Potash has been purchasing the mineral rights, which the previous owners had let lapse, for the past three years, as well as making sure it was technically, economically and logistically feasible to put the deposit into production, said Theodore Pagano, a potash geologist, engineer and general manager of Michigan Potash Co. LLC.
Production would not begin until mid-2014 at the soonest, said Pagano, who estimated it would take about three years for a build-out. He estimated that the project would create 300 construction jobs, as well as 110 full-time jobs at the site. Pagano estimated that, at a rate of one million tons a year, the deposit could last for 100 years.
The deposit could help the state’s agriculture industry, as well as the Midwest as a whole, offering a locally sourced supply of the fertilizer for corn and soybean farmers, said William Harrison, professor emeritus of geosciences and director of the geological repository at WMU. He said Michigan farmers use about 300,000 tons of potash each year.
“One of the things that makes this so valuable is that it is an incredibly rich deposit that is in easy reach of the enormous demand from Midwest corn and soybean farmers who operate within a 500-mile radius of this deposit,” said “This is an opportunity for new wealth to come from the use of natural resources never tapped before.”
United States domestic potash production has declined by 65 percent since 1962, and the country imports more than 82 percent of its potash fertilizer. U.S. potash prices increased 1000 percent between 1962 and 2012, before dropping this summer, MLive reported.
The mine in Hersey, in Osceola County, still possesses the mineral rights for land a half-mile in every direction, said Pagano. Michigan Potash has purchased the rest.
