|
| TABLE 2 | ||||||||
| U.S. PRODUCERS OF SODA ASH IN 2006 | ||||||||
| (Million short tons unless otherwise noted) | ||||||||
| Plant nameplate | ||||||||
| Company | capacity | Plant location | Source of 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 | ||||||
| 1Tg Soda Ash Inc. was sold to FMC Wyoming Corp. in July 1999. | ||||||||
| 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. | ||||||||
| 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), 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