U.S. Producers Of Soda Ash In 2007

TABLE 2
U.S. PRODUCERS OF SODA ASH IN 2007

(Million short tons unless otherwise noted)

		Plant
		nameplate		Source of
Company		capacity	Plant location	sodium carbonate
FMC Wyoming Corp.:
Granger¹		1.30	Granger, WY	Underground trona.
Green River²		3.55	Green River, WY	Do.
General Chemical (Soda Ash) Partners³		2.80	do.	Do.
OCI Chemical Corp.⁴		3.10	do.	Do.
Searles Valley Minerals, Inc.⁵		1.45	Trona, CA	Dry lake brine.
Solvay Chemicals, Inc.:⁶					��
Green River		2.80	Green River, WY	Underground trona.
Parachute⁷		1.00	Parachute, CO	Underground nahcolite.
Total		16.00
Total	million metric tons	14.50
Do., do. Ditto.
¹Tg Soda Ash Inc. was sold to FMC Wyoming Corp. in July 1999. About 500,000 short tons of idled
ca
²Formed joint venture (20%) in February 1996 with Sumitomo Corp. and Nippon Sheet Glass Co., Ltd.,
both of Japan.
³A joint venture between General Chemical Corp. (75%), Owens-Illinois, Inc. [acquired Australian
Consolidated Industries International (ACI) in 1998] (25%). Tosoh Wyoming Inc. of Japan, which purchased
part of ACI's 24% share in June 1992, sold its shares to General Chemical in August 2005.
⁴Rh�ne-Poulenc Basic Chemicals Co. of France sold its 51% share to DC Chemical Co., Ltd. [formerly Oriental
Chemical Industries Chemical Corp. (OCI) of the Republic of Korea] on February 29, 1996; Anadarko��
Petroleum Corp., (acquired Union Pacific Resources Co. in 2000) owns 49%. An 800,000-short-ton expansion,�
brought onstream in November 1998, increased plant capacity to 3.1 million short tons per year; however, the
company planned to take 900,000 short tons per year out of service temporarily for equipment refurbishment.�
⁵IMC Global, Inc. acquired North American Chemical Co. in April 1998; operation sold in 2004 to Sun Capital�
Partners, Inc. (80.1%) with IMC retaining a 19.9% share.� The entire operation was sold to Nirma Ltd. of India
in November 2007.
⁶Solvay Soda Ash Joint Venture is owned by Solvay S.A. of Belgium (80%) and Asahi Glass Co. of Japan
(20%), which became a partner in February 1990. Capacity increase of 272,000 metric tons per year (t/yr)�
(300,000 short tons per year) installed December 1995 and 454,000 t/yr (500,000 short tons per year) in October�
�2000. Company name changed to Solvay Chemicals, Inc. in 2003.
⁷Came onstream October 2000. A joint venture with Williams Sodium Products Co., [a wholly owned
subsidiary of The Williams Companies, Inc. (60%) and American Alkali, Inc. (40%)]. Operation sold to Solvay
America, Inc. on September 10, 2003. Soda ash plant idled.

Source: United States Geological Survey Mineral Resources Program

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