# Potash

Potassium salts dug from buried ancient seas, an irreplaceable crop nutrient with supply concentrated in Canada, Russia and Belarus.

Source page: https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/

Fertilisers · No. 2

- US critical 2025
- India critical 2023
- HHI 1,836 · moderately concentrated
 Fertilisers · Foundation · Matter

The potassium feeding the world's crops is dug from salt beds left behind when ancient inland seas dried up.

Chart: Illustration: Potash

##### Where it comes from

Chart: Map of where it comes from

Potash lies in salt beds left by ancient inland seas, such as the Williston Basin under Saskatchewan. It is mined underground or dissolved out through deep wells.

##### Three things to know

1. Potassium takes its name from pot ash: wood ashes soaked in pots and boiled down to a white salt.
2. Nothing can replace potassium as a plant nutrient, and manure is too dilute to haul far.
3. The Dead Sea, worked by Israel and Jordan, holds nearly 2 billion tons of potassium chloride.

##### The journey

1. 1 **Evaporite beds**Sylvinite left by vanished inland seas
2. 2 **Mining**Underground rooms or deep solution wells
3. 3 **Refining**Floated or crystallised to 95%+ KCl
4. 4 **Granules**MOP, or SOP for chloride-sensitive crops
5. 5 **Fields**Blended into fertiliser and spread
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##### Go deeper pick a tab to open it in full

## Other sections

- [Overview](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/overview/index.md)
- [Correlation](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/correlation/index.md)
- [Extraction](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/extraction/index.md)
- [Production](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/production/index.md)
- [Stocks](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/stocks/index.md)
- [Cycles](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/cycles/index.md)
- [Trading](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/trading/index.md)
- [Movement](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/movement/index.md)
- [Criticality](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/criticality/index.md)
- [Characteristics](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/characteristics/index.md)
- [Emissions](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/emissions/index.md)
- [Relationships](https://www.materialinsights.org/commodities/potash/links/index.md)