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Ogden • Great Salt Lake Minerals Corp. is launching a $160 million upgrade of its existing solar evaporation ponds on the shores of the Great Salt Lake so it can increase its production of potassium sulfate fertilizer.
The investment is expected over the next four years to boost production at the company's existing facilities by approximately 60 percent and increase employment to 400 workers from 350.
"Work will begin immediately with some new capacity available starting in 2012," said Angelo Brisimitzakis, president and CEO of Compass Minerals, GSLM's parent company.
The announcement came Thursday as the company celebrated the 40th anniversary of its first shipment of "sulfate of potassium" or SOP, a nonchemically enhanced fertilizer widely used to improve fruit and vegetable yields.
Brisimitzakis said the $160 million investment is the second of a three-phase plan to address the growing agricultural demand for SOP in the decades ahead. The company, which currently produces approximately 350,000 tons every year from its 45,000 acres of solar ponds, contends it is the only SOP producer in the United States.
The first phase, which saw the company invest $40 million in its plant to increase its annual potassium sulfate production by 100,000 tons, was launched in 2008 and is expected to be completed by year end.
Under the second phase, GSLM will be introducing newly developed "sealing" technologies at its ponds to reduce the amount of brine that soaks into the ground. The technology also will keep the briny waters inside its ponds from flowing too rapidly. That means more minerals can be harvested.
The third leg of the plan involves eventually doubling the size of its solar ponds. The company in 2007 applied to add 91,000 acres of solar ponds to its operations but that request remains in the midst of environmental studies.
"It will be at least five years until we see any additional production from that [requested] acreage," Brisimitzakis said. "So this second-phase investment will serve as a bridge for us until that additional production arrives."
At a gathering at the GSLM plant on Thursday to celebrate the company's 40th anniversary, local and state dignitaries lauded the company for its contribution to the state's economy.
"For 40 years this company has served as a key component of our state's economy," said Spencer Eccles, director of the Governor's Office of Economic Development. "Who would have thought that the 'dead sea' of the Great Salt Lake would support so much life" as a result of the fertilizer that is produced from its waters.
Sen. Scott Jenkins, R-Plain City, said that as a teenager in the late 1960s, he frequently with friends would drive around the area where GSLM now sits. "At the time they were just beginning to build [their ponds]. And it is startling for me to now see what has happened between then an now — and realize what a good deal this [company] has been for west Weber County."
Great Salt Lake Minerals
Has been operating near Ogden on the shores of the Great Salt Lake since 1970.
Uses solar evaporation to produces magnesium chloride used for dust control, salt for use on roads and in water softeners, and potassium sulfate, a nonchemically enhanced fertilizer that is widely used on fruit and vegetable crops.
Is the only U.S. potassium sulfate producer.
Predicts global demand for potassium sulfate will go up 5 to 7 percent annually for the next five years.