Minerals Including Potash

Michigan’s non-fuel mineral industries add $2 billion to the state’s economy annually. Resources such as iron, construction and building materials, industrial and metallic minerals can be wisely used only if comprehensive and current data about their quality and distribution is available. That data comes from subsurface rock cores and samples.

2025 Update about Michigan's Potash Deposit and our Research

Dr. William Harrison recently described Michigan’s potash deposit and the research we have been conducting about it. The article discusses the history of the deposit, where it is, and why it is particularly important now. He discusses the collection of potash rock cores that we preserve at MGRRE from 77 different wells in 9 counties. Research by MGRRE staff and students identified the geologic and stratigraphic distribution of this deposit, and analytical testing by industry has confirmed it to be the highest grade potash known throughout the world.

WMU research facility assists in rediscovery of rare mineral deposit

Contact: Cheryl Roland
September 10, 2013

The Harrisons with Theodore Pagano (center)

KALAMAZOO—Rediscovery of a long-forgotten mineral deposit located under two West Michigan counties is set to spark a new multibillion industry in Michigan that will quickly position the state as the nation's leading source for a critical agricultural tool that is in demand internationally.

Potash—potassium chloride—is an essential plant nutrient and critical ingredient in fertilizer. Currently mined in only three locations in the nation, supplies are dwindling and prices skyrocketing. Now, one of the highest-quality potash ore deposits in the world has been identified below the surface of West Michigan.

A valuable resource

The discovery was made by using the treasure trove of geologic data that is housed at Western Michigan University's Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education. The result of the rediscovery, say geologists, will be the introduction of a new industry in Michigan worth as much as $65 billion, easily surpassing the state's historical oil and gas production revenues and triggering explosive job growth in Osceola and Mecosta counties.

"This is conceivably one of Michigan's most valuable resources," says Theodore A. Pagano, a potash geologist, engineer and general manager of Michigan Potash Co. LLC. That firm now controls the rediscovered potassium ore reserve called the Borgen Bed that lies under more than 14,500 acres in the two counties. His company has worked quietly over the past three years to ensure the reserve could be technically, economically and logistically put into production and compete head to head with the New Mexico and western Canadian mines that are now the major North American sources of potash.

"This is the United States' only shovel-ready potash project," Pagano says. "Michigan is New Mexico untapped. What we're looking at is the introduction of an industry that is critical to the economic health of the state. We'll be producing a Michigan product for Michigan farmers that would dramatically reduce the expensive transport costs on the more than 300,000 tons of potash consumed in our state annually.

Verification of the quality and amount of the potash in the Borgen Bed was done by using core samples provided by WMU geologists under the direction of Dr. William B. Harrison III, professor emeritus of geosciences and director of his department's Geological Repository for Research and Education.

In 2008, Harrison and his wife, Linda, an administrator with the repository, came into possession of geologic core samples collected in the early 1980s when a Canadian company was prospecting for potash in Michigan. That company established a mine and small processing plant in Michigan but pulled back from fully commercializing the deposit. Over the years, changing business plans and corporate mergers pushed the Michigan operation into the background, and mineral leases for the area lapsed. The sample cores came to WMU by chance and were added into the University's statewide collection of such core samples.

"Without Bill and Linda Harrison, Michigan and the United States would be without the rediscovery of a multi-billion dollar potash deposit," says Pagano who learned through industry sources that the Harrisons might be able to help him in his quest to define the scope and quality of the Borgen Bed.

About potash

A potash sample, housed in WMU's Geological Repository for Research and Education 

Potash is found in just a few areas once covered by inland seas. The seas evaporated and the potassium and sodium chloride deposits crystallized into potash ore and were covered by successive layers of rock and soil.

The Michigan deposit, WMU's Harrison says, is the purest and highest-grade potash being produced globally—600 percent higher than that being produced in New Mexico's vast Permian Basin. It is also twice the grade of deposits found in Canada and Russia, the two nations that control more than 80 percent of the world's potash reserve.

"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." Harrison says. "This is an opportunity for new wealth to come from the use of natural resources never tapped before."

Pagano has been working with investors and state and national officials to move forward with the capital-intensive establishment of manufacturing and processing facilities. He estimates an initial demand for more than 300 workers employed in an enterprise that will produce more than a million tons of potash annually.

Bringing Michigan potash to market, Pagano says, will provide a domestic source of the element at reduced cost to Midwest farmers as well as to the national agriculture industry. It will reduce imports, improve the nation's trade balance, create jobs and increase the state's tax base.

"It's our responsibility to develop this wisely and in a way that moves Michigan forward," Pagano says.

About WMU's Michigan geologic research resources

WMU has been home since 1982 to an extensive set of one-of-a-kind core samples and well records that have made the University the preeminent source for data on Michigan's subsurface geologic layers. WMU's Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education makes information about those layers available by maintaining extensive online databases and housing the most comprehensive archive of Michigan geological samples and data. That archive includes more than 500,000 feet of rock cores from oil, gas, water and environmental research wells and from glacial research and Lake Michigan bluff erosion studies. It also contains impressive collections of geologic maps, and thousands of drillers' reports, electrical and mechanical logs, mudlogs, porosity and permeability analyses, and related well data.

In 2011, the state of Michigan tapped WMU to serve as home to the Michigan Geological Survey. The move made WMU Michigan's designated geoscience agency and put responsibility for mapping and assessing the state's geological resources—such as minerals, soils and groundwater—in the hands of the University's Department of Geosciences, which was already a storehouse of information concerning the state's groundwater, mineral and oil and gas resources.

For more information about the initiative, contact Pagano at tpagano@mipotash.com.

For information about WMU's geologic data resources or details on the science behind potash formation, contact the Harrisons at (269) 387-8633 or (269) 387-8691.

Work by WMU may reduce US dependency on China for critical minerals

These rare earth oxides are used as tracers to determine which parts of a watershed are eroding. Clockwise from top center: praseodymium, cerium, lanthanum, neodymium, samarium and gadolinium (photo by Peggy Greb, U.S. Department of Agriculture).

(Photo: Stibnite, an ore mineral of the critical commodity antimony, by Niki Wintzer, U.S. Geological Survey) 

• President's executive order
• U.S. mineral commodities
• Rare earth mineral facts
• Related critical minerals
   story in WMU News

KALAMAZOO, Mich.—The Pentagon is quietly racing to track the U.S. output of rare earth minerals amid the ongoing trade dispute with China, Reuters reported in a July 12 story.

But Western Michigan University, home to the Michigan Geological Survey, has already been doing just that. In May, the University began working on a grant its state geological survey received to assess Michigan's potential for supplying some of the 35 minerals the federal government considers vital to the nation's security and economic prosperity.

Items on the list, which includes 15 rare earth minerals, are essential for producing everything from washing machines, energy-efficient light bulbs and smartphones to robots, electric cars and missile systems.

The need for states to conduct a critical minerals assessment became crystal clear earlier this year when the escalating trade war with China resulted in that country increasing tariffs to 25% on rare earth mineral exports to the United States and threatening to stop these shipments altogether.

And America was in a vulnerable position even before the current trade tensions. China temporarily stopped exporting rare earth minerals to Japan in 2010 during a dispute with that country. Plus, China had started imposing trade limits on rare earth exports at the turn of this century, scrapping them only in 2015 after a World Trade Organization ruling.

So, WMU didn't waste any time after a nationwide grant program was announced in the wake of President Donald Trump signing a presidential executive order calling for a federal strategy to ensure a reliable and secure supply of critical minerals. The University applied for a share of the U.S. Geological Survey funds and received the largest amount possible, $35,000.

"We use tons of stuff in our daily lives, and it's all related to technology. But we don't really understand or appreciate where all the things come from that make up that technology," says Dr. William B. Harrison III, principal investigator for the grant.

"I guess we just assume that we have all these different mineral products that we need. And it turns out we don't. They're there, but because other countries have put more emphasis on them, they're developing their resources a little more efficiently than we are."

America's dilemma

More than three decades ago, China embarked on a plan to capture the world market for rare earth minerals, in part by imposing few environmental or labor restrictions on mining companies and processors. It mines or processes about 95% of the global supply of rare earth minerals and has an estimated one-third of the world's rare earth reserves.

Meanwhile, the United States has only one rare earth minerals mine, the Mountain Pass Mine in California. Production there has stalled periodically because of closures due to contamination issues and more recently, bankruptcy. And despite reopening in 2018, the mine sends its output to China for final processing.

Harrison shows off a rock core that contains layers of potash, an essential fertilizer component.

Harrison says the United States is rich in geological natural resources, including a lot of the rare earth minerals that have magnetic and optical properties so useful in making electronics more efficient. But it also imports these and other critical minerals.

These exotic-sounding materials, such as germanium, lanthanum and yttrium, actually aren't rare. They just occur in low concentrations and are mixed in with other minerals. That makes them difficult and environmentally challenging to extract. Even though many are used for green technologies, they take huge amounts of water to process and can leave behind tons of toxic waste.

"These kinds of materials are so important to our technology and our everyday activities that we just can't afford not to have them. So the president issued an executive order," Harrison says.

"And now the various state agencies—the Department of the Interior, where the USGS is housed, and the Department of Energy and Department of Commerce—are all working together to develop plans and implement activities and objectives to begin this process of better understanding where our resources are and to maintain relationships with our allies to keep the supply chain going."

National fact-finding effort

Some 40 other state geological surveys received grants to assess the known and potential distribution and quality of critical mineral resources in their states. At WMU, Harrison is leading a research team comprised of John A. Yellich, director of the Michigan Geological Survey; Dr. Peter J. Voice, research scientist and geologist; Dr. Joyashish Thakurta, economic geologist; Jennifer L. Trout, data manager; and several graduate and undergraduate students.

MGRRE houses some 550,000 feet of rock cores from around Michigan. 

The team will spend the next year cataloging and preserving both unpublished and previously published critical minerals information by digging through materials at the Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education in WMU's Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences. Harrison founded MGRRE and serves as its director.

Both the repository and department are integral to the Michigan Geological Survey's work, and they have been since the state decided in 2011 to base the survey at WMU. Legislators approved the action primarily because of MGRRE, an archive of rock samples and oil, gas and water well records that constitute Michigan's most comprehensive collection of subsurface geological materials.

As part of the USGS assessment grant, WMU will make its findings available to the public as well as private companies.

The same will be true for a related grant from USGS that Yellich says the Michigan Geological Survey expects to be awarded later this summer. If the new funding comes through, WMU will partner with Michigan Technological University and map a 110-square-mile area of Dickinson County to confirm the geology of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

Yellich, who is vice president of the American Association of State Geologists, says critical minerals were the focus of several presentations at the association's national meeting June 9-13.

"At the meeting," Yellich says, "USGS Director James Reilly also reinforced the collaborative benefits of the state geological surveys and the USGS to accomplish the immediate task of assessing the nation's geologic environments for rare earth elements and critical minerals."

Boosting student success, Michigan's economy

In addition to enhancing the nation's security and prosperity, Harrison notes that the ongoing assessment grant is beneficial for Michigan and for WMU students.

"We think it has upside potential for economic development. One way that you can generate new wealth in any region is to extract some new resources out of the ground. That would build the economy up and create jobs," he says.

"And a lot of students will be helping to assemble and scan publications, assemble geospatial data, and prepare maps. I know many students question what they're going to get with their degrees. But WMU students who do these kinds of studies have some skill sets that industry really wants to have. So from a student training standpoint, this is really valuable practical experience and one that lets them make an important contribution to the state and nation."

Trout sorts through some of the  materials WMU has received from the state. 

When it comes to contributions, one research team member already has made a startling discovery. Natural graphite, a designated critical mineral, can be found in the Upper Peninsula's Baraga County.

Trout mined that long-forgotten morsel from information in a collection of unpublished materials MGRRE received from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy, formerly the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality. The materials include reports, handwritten notes, permits and other documents dating back 50 years.

"There's about a 30-mile stretch of graphite, and it's in a narrow belt. It was mined in 1911 and 1912 by a couple of different companies in open pit mines. And interestingly enough, there's a creek that runs real close by there called Plumbago, which is another word for graphite," she says.

"Graphite was mentioned in the first box that I pulled. I don't know what else we're going to find. A lot of these documents that I've been going through are not published anywhere. So this project will really help us get information back out to the public."

Team member Voice, an expert on Michigan's mining history, says the Ford Motor Co. owned quite a bit of the Baraga property and decades ago, used graphite in lubricants and paint. He is spearheading the assessment grant's review of published information about Michigan's critical minerals. What Voice is unearthing is being added to an extensive Michigan Geology bibliography that he previously compiled. It contains some 7,800 references to publications, with about 100 so far dealing with critical minerals.

That database also contains numerous references to potash—potassium chloride—an essential plant nutrient and key ingredient in fertilizer. MGRRE helped rediscover this salt in Michigan several years ago in another forgotten mineral deposit located under West Michigan's Osceola and Mecosta counties. The deposit features the purest and highest-grade potash being produced globally and is in the process of being developed by a commercial firm.

Looking forward

As WMU researchers and the Michigan Geological Survey continue to work on the assessment grant, Harrison says he's hopeful they will collect more information about the potential value of other mineral resources in the state.

"Whatever information is out there, it'll all be put into a big national database that anybody that's interested in exploring for these minerals can access. So, I think it's going to really stimulate private interest and private investment," he says.

"Companies would love to go out and do these kinds of projects, but they don't know what's there and they don't have the time or the resources to really go out and start looking in every state."

For more information, contact Harrison in the Michigan Geological Repository for Research at harrison@wmich.edu or (269) 387-8691 and Yellich in the Michigan Geological Survey at john.a.yellich@wmich.edu or (269) 387-8649. To learn more about those WMU facilities as well as related academic program offerings, visit the Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences website.

For more WMU news, arts and events, visit WMU News online.

2019 Michigan has minerals America needs

The Trump Administration's list of 35 mineral and mineral groups deemed critical to the nation includes several that are located in Michigan, although more research needs to be done to better characterize their locations, quantity and quality.

Magnesium, platinum and potash are just some of the critical minerals found in the state that Western Michigan University is using a grant from the U.S. Geological Survey to investigate.

The Critical list

Invaluable data is hidden in the hundreds of thousands of rock cores like these that WMU archives.

Thirty-three minerals and two mineral material groups appear on the list.

• Minerals: aluminum (bauxite), antimony, arsenic, barite, beryllium, bismuth, cesium, chromium, cobalt, fluorspar, gallium, germanium, graphite (natural), hafnium, helium, indium, lithium, magnesium, manganese, niobium, potash, rhenium, rubidium, scandium, strontium, tantalum, tellurium, tin, titanium, tungsten, uranium, vanadium and zirconium.

• Platinum group metals: iridium, osmium, palladium, platinum, rhodium, and ruthenium.

• Rare earth elements group: cerium, dysprosium, erbium, europium, gadolinium, holmium, lanthanum, lutetium, neodymium, praseodymium, samarium, terbium, thulium, ytterbium and yttrium. While some organizations count 17 elements in this group, USGS counts 15. It excludes promethium, and separates outs scandium.

Learn more about Trump's executive order and the nation's critical and non-critical mineral commodities by reviewing the report, Mineral Commodity Summaries 2019.

Michigan's geological makeup

The Michigan Geological Survey, part of WMU's Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, notes that the state has two geologically distinctive areas.

One area, the western Upper Peninsula, has igneous and metamorphic rocks that host well-known, abundant and varied metallic mineral resources, including copper, iron, nickel, platinum group minerals, manganese and cobalt. The region also has some graphite resources and deposits of a phosphate mineral that contains certain rare earth minerals. Researchers have documented the presence of uranium, as well.

Meanwhile, geologic formations in the Lower Peninsula and eastern Upper Peninsula consist of sedimentary deposits that host non-metallic mineral resources, including a large deposit of potash, and lesser amounts of natural brine minerals, helium, magnesium, lithium, manganese, strontium and cesium.

Michigan's minerals

Together, Michigan's two peninsulas hold significant promise for boosting critical minerals production in the United States, says Dr. Peter J. Voice, a WMU research scientist and an expert on the state's mining history. For example:

• Preliminary mapping suggests that a large deposit of potash may occur in up to 22 lower Michigan counties and cover more than 8 million acres. Commercial quantities of this essential fertilizer component may exist in eight of those counties and encompass about 3 million acres.
• Magnesium compounds have been extracted from magnesium chloride-rich sandstone brines located in the central part of the Lower Peninsula. At present, one brine company is doing that in Manistee. Historically, the entire domestic supply of metallic magnesium from 1927 into the late 1930's was produced by the Dow Chemical Co. from Midland-area brine. Magnesium metal is commonly combined with other metals to make alloys that can withstand high temperatures. These alloys are used in oven and furnace liners and many aerospace applications.
• Nearly all cell phones and computers use platinum group minerals. Deposits of these minerals are associated with copper- and nickel-containing sulfide ore bodies in the Upper Peninsula. The Eagle mine in Marquette County already produces copper, nickel, and some platinum and palladium. A separate sulfide ore body unaffiliated with the mine has been identified in Houghton and Ontonagon counties.

For more information, contact Dr. William B. Harrison III, the  principal investigator, at william.harrison_iii@wmich.edu or (269) 387-8691.

Related stories

Work by WMU may reduce US dependency on China for critical minerals | June 24, 2019
WMU research facility assists in rediscovery of rare mineral deposit | Sept. 10, 2013

June 2019 | Searching for critical minerals in Michigan
 

At the Michigan Geological Survey (MGS) and the Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education (MGRRE), we are leaving no stone unturned in our search for minerals you may never have heard of, like sylvite, cesium, and manganese. Why?

Because America depends on resources like these, defined by the Department of the Interior as the 35 “critical minerals and rare earth elements.” But we are not producing enough of them. In fact, we are not producing any of some of the “rare earth elements.”  We import 90% or more of these minerals and elements—mostly from China.

And America’s dependence on foreign sources has increased dramatically. In the 1990’s, America was the world’s top minerals producer and exporter. Now we are the world’s top importer, making us increasingly vulnerable to supply shortages and price volatility.

Our newest research grant, from the U S Geological Survey, focuses on finding these minerals in Michigan. Dr. William Harrison, MGRRE Director, is leading a research team comprised of John A. Yellich, director of the Michigan Geological Survey; Dr. Peter J. Voice, research scientist and geologist; Dr. Joyashish Thakurta, economic geologist; Jennifer L. Trout, data manager; and several graduate and undergraduate students.  A brief summary of our current findings can be found here.

In a new NPR interview, Stateside discusses Michigan's role in mining these raw materials with Drs. William Harrison and Peter Voice. The interview begins at 18:40 or scroll down the NPR page for a shorter clip. 

The Many uses of Core and Sample Data

Some of the cores at the Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education represent shallow materials, including glacial deposits and bedrock. These were drilled by engineering companies as part of public works projects, by the Michigan Department of Transportation for prior road and bridge work and by MGRRE researchers, such as Dr. Alan E. Kehew. These cores contain materials such as sand, gravel and limestone that are used in road building and construction. Knowing where these valuable deposits are located can help preserve them for future use. Especially in areas of dense population, these materials can no longer be produced because of surface land use.

Most of the cores archived at MGRRE were originally drilled by oil and gas companies from the 1930’s through the 1980’s. Coring is a very expensive technique; however, coring yields the greatest amount of potential data. Remote sensing techniques are more commonly used today, but some newer wells have been cored, largely to provide hands-on examination in new plays. Data from cores outlive their original purpose and can be used to address energy, mineral and environmental questions for this and future generations. As an example, cores archived at MGRRE originally drilled for oil and gas exploration provided the data to assess the quality of a large Michigan potash deposit.

MGRRE's Role in Rediscovering a Large Potash Deposit

Western Michigan University’s Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education has been receiving national attention about its work with Michigan Potash Company, the result of which has helped to rediscover a $65 billion dollar deposit here in Michigan. Because the United States imports most of its potash from other countries, our Midwest farmers pay a very high price for their fertilizer. Corn and soybeans require a great deal of the product; Michigan farmers alone use 300,000 tons per year. The cost of potash includes about $40 to $60 per ton for rail transportation alone. A local Michigan source could cut that transportation cost in half by using trucks and barges.

MGRRE is proud to have assisted in this significant rediscovery. This event just shows how important it is to rescue and keep cores: cores are the source of raw data about natural resources that generate new economic development. MGRRE archived the only known cores from this vast potash deposit and provided the source for tests which confirmed its quality as the highest grade available. Dr. William Harrison, MGRRE director, and Linda Harrison, MGRRE administrator, are gearing up to study the potash deposits across the state and hope to provide a step up to an emerging large-scale industrial development.

Related links and resources

• Potash: General introduction
• michigans_critical_minerals.pptx 14.49 MB
• The Pioneer Group news article - May 3, 2016
• Potash reports and publications: "USGS 2008 Minerals Yearbook", USGS publication archive, "USGS 2011 Commodity Summary", Geological Survey Division Report of Investigation 25: "Potassium Salts (Potash) of the Salina A-1 Evaporite in the Michigan Basin"
• Potash production and consumption in Brazil: Supply and demand