Editing Potassium (section)

===Mining===
[[File:Museo de La Plata - Silvita.jpg|thumb|left| [[Sylvite]] from New Mexico]]
[[File:Wintershall Monte Kali 12.jpg|thumb|[[Monte Kali (Heringen)|Monte Kali]], a potash mining and [[beneficiation]] waste heap in [[Hesse|Hesse, Germany]], consisting mostly of [[sodium chloride]].]]

Potassium salts such as [[carnallite]], [[langbeinite]], [[polyhalite]], and [[sylvite]] form extensive [[evaporite]] deposits in ancient lake bottoms and [[seabed]]s,<ref name="geo" /> making extraction of potassium salts in these environments commercially viable. The principal source of potassium – potash – is mined in [[Canada]], [[Russia]], [[Belarus]], [[Kazakhstan]], [[Germany]], [[Israel]], the U.S., [[Jordan]], and other places around the world.<ref>{{cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=EHx51n3T858C|publisher=Springer|title = Potash: deposits, processing, properties and uses|isbn = 978-0-412-99071-7|last1 = Garrett|first1= Donald E.|date = 1995-12-31}}</ref><ref name="USGSCS2008">{{cite web|url=http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/potash/mcs-2008-potas.pdf|first=Joyce A.|last=Ober|publisher=United States Geological Survey|title=Mineral Commodity Summaries 2008:Potash|access-date=2008-11-20|archive-date=2019-01-11|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190111170532/https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/potash/mcs-2008-potas.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="USGSYB2006">{{cite web|url=https://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/potash/myb1-2006-potas.pdf|first=Joyce A.|last=Ober|publisher=United States Geological Survey|title=Mineral Yearbook 2006:Potash|access-date=2008-11-20|archive-date=2008-12-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081217043522/http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/potash/myb1-2006-potas.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref> The first mined deposits were located near Staßfurt, Germany, but the deposits span from [[Great Britain]] over Germany into Poland. They are located in the [[Zechstein]] and were deposited in the Middle to Late [[Permian]]. The largest deposits ever found lie {{convert|1000|m|ft|abbr=off|sp=us}} below the surface of the Canadian province of [[Saskatchewan]]. The deposits are located in the [[Elk Point Group]] produced in the [[Middle Devonian]]. Saskatchewan, where several large mines have operated since the 1960s pioneered the technique of freezing of wet sands (the Blairmore formation) to drive mine shafts through them. The main potash mining company in Saskatchewan until its merge was the [[Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan]], now [[Nutrien]].<ref>{{cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=rtRFyFO4hpEC&pg=PA433|publisher=U of Nebraska Press|page = 433|title = Encyclopedia of the Great Plains|isbn = 978-0-8032-4787-1|author1-link=David J. Wishart|last = Wishart| first=David J.|date = 2004}}</ref> The water of the [[Dead Sea]] is used by Israel and Jordan as a source of potash, while the concentration in normal oceans is too low for commercial production at current prices.<ref name="USGSCS2008" /><ref name="USGSYB2006" />