Soda Ash, like Potash is an evaporate mineral (water-soluble mineral sediments) that results from the evaporation of bodies of surficial water.

What is Soda Ash Used For?

Soda ash (Sodium Carbonate) is an important industrial compound used to manufacture glass, chemicals, soaps and detergents, pulp and paper, and many other familiar consumer products. Soda ash is obtained from trona and sodium carbonate-rich brines. The world’s largest deposit of trona is in the Green River Basin of Wyoming. Soda ash can be manufactured from salt and limestone however synthetic soda ash is more costly to produce and generates environmentally harmful waste. Almost three quarters of the world’s supply of soda ash was manufactured in 2007.

Soda ash is a commodity in which consumption tends to grow as population or a country’s gross domestic product increases. The rapid industrialisation of China, and increasingly India, has spurred substantially higher prices for soda ash in recent years. China is one of the largest producers of soda ash in the world producing just under 40% of the world’s supply, however it relies heavily on manufactured soda ash which is more costly than naturally occurring soda ash.

The Soda Ash Market

The average annual value in 2007 for bulk, dense natural soda ash, free on board (f.o.b.) Green River, WY, and Searles Valley, CA, was $114.12 per metric ton ($103.53 per short ton), which was 7% more than that of 2006.

Prices for soda ash were recently quoted at up to US$300 per tonne and are expected reach US$350 per tonne during 2008 as alternative uses of soda ash increase demand particularly within the mining sector, where vanadium and nickel producers rely on soda ash as a flux in the extractive process.