Canadians urge ban on potash sales to USA

[Walt]

As an historical example: In the 1920's and 30's Japan imported virtually all of their oil. They knew oil existed in the puppet state Manchukuo, but didn't develop it because it was cheaper and easier to import it. That led to the events that caused, in large part, the Pacific War.

An historical example that is better: the Nazis produced liquid fuel(gasoline and diesel) from coal. Many alt right posters say we should just copy what the Nazis did 80 years ago, not realizing that it would create gasoline that costs over $100 per gallon. That might work in war, but it would destroy our economy.

 

[Cypress]

Owens Lake and the Salton Sea ARE massive environmental catastrophes and have been for decades. This would put a nasty biproduct of those catastrophes to good use and help clean them up.

Owens was a freshwater lake. You are not going to get the potassium chloride minerals used in potash from freshwater lakes in any economically-viable amount.

High concentrations of chloride is a geochemical signature of seawater, and the massive potassium-chloride enriched evaporite deposits of Saskatchewan were formed by the drying up of a large and extensive Devonian-era inland sea.

The Salton Sea is critical bird habitat on the Pacific flyway, and California will not let you evaporate it just so Trump can have his trade war with Canada.

 

[T. A. Gardner]

An historical example that is better: the Nazis produced liquid fuel(gasoline and diesel) from coal. Many alt right posters say we should just copy what the Nazis did 80 years ago, not realizing that it would create gasoline that costs over $100 per gallon. That might work in war, but it would destroy our economy.

Did you know, back then that the entirety of Germany's wartime search for new oil sources across captured territory consisted of 12 men with three trucks and a single set of seismic survey equipment? Read about that years ago in a professional magazine.

Otherwise, your example is poor in that Germany was doing what was forced on it in wartime and the peacetime construction of that industry was in expectation of war.

Japan had the ability to offer foreign companies to come in and do the heavy lifting to get oil production going in Manchukuo (today the Chinese are exploiting that oil in what is their largest domestic production field). If war still came and companies like BP, Standard, and such were the ones running those fields, the Japanese could simply kick them out and appropriate the production facilities, just as Mexico or Venezuela have done as two more recent examples.

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Owens was a freshwater lake. You are not going to get the potassium chloride minerals used in potash from freshwater lakes in any economically-viable amount.

High concentrations of chloride is a geochemical signature of seawater, and the massive potassium-chloride enriched evaporite deposits of Saskatchewan were formed by the drying up of a large and extensive Devonian-era inland sea.

The Salton Sea is critical bird habitat on the Pacific flyway, and California will not let you evaporate it just so Trump can have his trade war with Canada.

U.S. Department of Energy Analysis Confirms California’s Salton Sea Region To Be A Rich Domestic Lithium Resource - CleanTechnica

Analysis Concludes the Region Could Meet the Nation’s Need for the Critical Mineral through Extraction from Geothermal Brines

cleantechnica.com

https://interestingengineering.com/science/a-hidden-deposit-of-lithium-in-a-us-lake-could-power-375-million-evs

While those look at the lithium potential, the same is true for potash.

https://resourceworld.com/troy-minerals-announces-airborne-geophysics-underway-at-lake-owen-wyoming/

Potash & Lithium Exploration in the US (CSE: KCL) - Resource Talks

Simon Clarke, CEO of American Potash (soon to be renamed American Critical Minerals), outlines a strategic plan to advance the company’s dual-focus potash and lithium projects in Utah’s Paradox Basin. With a revamped team, supportive insider ownership, and recently reinstated federal permits...

resourcetalks.com

 

[Cypress]

An historical example that is better: the Nazis produced liquid fuel(gasoline and diesel) from coal. Many alt right posters say we should just copy what the Nazis did 80 years ago, not realizing that it would create gasoline that costs over $100 per gallon. That might work in war, but it would destroy our economy.

MAGA morons never, ever, under and circumstances consider the economics of business. It's almost as if they lack even a rudimentary awareness of business economics and ignore it when babbling about their fanciful schemes oil oil, gas, and potash.

 

[Cypress]

U.S. Department of Energy Analysis Confirms California’s Salton Sea Region To Be A Rich Domestic Lithium Resource - CleanTechnica

Analysis Concludes the Region Could Meet the Nation’s Need for the Critical Mineral through Extraction from Geothermal Brines

cleantechnica.com

https://interestingengineering.com/science/a-hidden-deposit-of-lithium-in-a-us-lake-could-power-375-million-evs

While those look at the lithium potential, the same is true for potash.

https://resourceworld.com/troy-minerals-announces-airborne-geophysics-underway-at-lake-owen-wyoming/

Potash & Lithium Exploration in the US (CSE: KCL) - Resource Talks

Simon Clarke, CEO of American Potash (soon to be renamed American Critical Minerals), outlines a strategic plan to advance the company’s dual-focus potash and lithium projects in Utah’s Paradox Basin. With a revamped team, supportive insider ownership, and recently reinstated federal permits...

resourcetalks.com

Mineral exploration, assessment, development, distribution takes years, and that's assuming the business economics even prove to be viable.

This is not even remotely close to a reason we could cheer being cut off from Canadian potash.

 

[Walt]

MAGA morons never, ever, under and circumstances consider the economics of business. It's almost as if they lack even a rudimentary awareness of business economics and ignore it when babbling about their fanciful schemes oil oil, gas, and potash.

They think life is so simple. Sadly, it is just them that is simple.

 

[Walt]

Mineral exploration, assessment, development, distribution takes years, and that's assuming the business economics even prove to be viable.

This is not even remotely close to a reason we could cheer being cut off from Canadian potash.

Not to mention that it takes money. Making huge investments based on trump's whims will drive up costs excruciatingly.

 

[Walt]

MAGA morons never, ever, under and circumstances consider the economics of business. It's almost as if they lack even a rudimentary awareness of business economics and ignore it when babbling about their fanciful schemes oil oil, gas, and potash.

For the alt right, everything is about expressing their emotions. They think business is about them expressing their emotions.

 

[FastLane]

American potash producers can increase production. We have the reserves. We can buy potash from other countries also.

 

[T. A. Gardner]

Mineral exploration, assessment, development, distribution takes years, and that's assuming the business economics even prove to be viable.

This is not even remotely close to a reason we could cheer being cut off from Canadian potash.

That's only--ONLY--because of Leftist environmentalist nutters and government regulation / paperwork.

 

[Into the Night]

On the other hand, potash can be made from evaporites of brine.

Depends on the brine.

The US already has some production of it by this method near Salt Lake City, for example, using the salt flats there as source material.

The Salt Flats are not brine. Yes...it does contain potassium chloride.

That could be expanded, along with other such locations like the Salton Sea or Owens Lake in California, as two examples.

The Salton Sea was formed by the Colorado river (before the dam systems were in place), and yes...potassium chloride is available there.

 

[Into the Night]

According to Google AI

Basalt contains about 0.8 percent potassium.

The prairie evaporite formation in Saskatchewan, which contains the main minerals mined for potassium, has the following potassium concentrations:
Sylvite has 52.4 percent potassium.
Carnallite has 14.1 percent potassium.

The Canadian evaporite minerals have anywhere from 17 to 65 times higher concentrations of potassium as does basalt.
Basalt is not anywhere remotely in the ballpark in terms of potassium content to these Canadian evaporite mineral deposits, and consequently basalt cannot possibly be an economically viable potassium alternative for large scale commercial agriculture in America.

Basalt has no potassium nor any potassium salts, Sybil.

 

[Into the Night]

Canada has the cheap potash, and they were willing to sell it to us.

Just go out to places like the Salton Sea, the Salt Lake Flats, and other places around the desert and pick it up, Wally. That's pretty damn cheap.

When you have to make massive investments to produce something,

There is no investment to picking something up off the ground, Wally.

that drives the price up insanely.

The United States already has plenty of potash, Wally.

Which means if we lose Canada as a source of cheap potash,

Canada can keep their potash. It's not needed.

look at paying ten or a hundred times as much,

Picking something up off the ground is pretty damn cheap, Wally.

just to make the original infrastructure we would need.

No infrastructure needed. The stuff is just lying on the ground.

Evaporating ponds are not cheap.

Sure they are, Wally...and you don't even need to build any. Dry lake beds are all over the Western deserts, and many of them contain potash. Just go out and pick it up.

And years of delays.

No delay. Just go out and pick it up.

Life does not have simple answers. Hard work is required.

No hard work is required, Wally. Just go out and pick it up.

 

[Into the Night]

An historical example that is better: the Nazis produced liquid fuel(gasoline and diesel) from coal.

No, they didn't, Wally. Go look up the Fischer-Tropsche process. The source material is not coal.

Many alt right posters

There is no such thing as an 'alt right', Wally.

say we should just copy what the Nazis did 80 years ago,

The Fischer-Tropsche process is well known. It works on an industrial scale as well. It is still used today to synthesize oil.

not realizing that it would create gasoline that costs over $100 per gallon.

The Fischer-Tropsche process does not produce gasoline, Wally.

That might work in war, but it would destroy our economy.

No need to synthesize gasoline, Wally. Just drill for crude oil and refine it. Pretty simple.

 

[Into the Night]

MAGA morons never, ever, under and circumstances consider the economics of business. It's almost as if they lack even a rudimentary awareness of business economics and ignore it when babbling about their fanciful schemes oil oil, gas, and potash.

MAGA isn't a person, Sybil.
Oil is plentiful. All you have to do is develop oil fields. Easily done, and quite profitable.
Potash is plentiful. All you have to do is go out and pick it up off the ground.
It is YOU that denies price discovery, Sybil.

 

[Into the Night]

Mineral exploration, assessment, development, distribution takes years, and that's assuming the business economics even prove to be viable.

This is not even remotely close to a reason we could cheer being cut off from Canadian potash.

It doesn't take years to go out and pick up potash right off the ground, Sybil.
Canada can keep their potash.

 

[Into the Night]

They think life is so simple. Sadly, it is just them that is simple.

It is simple, Wally. Complexity fallacy.

 

[Into the Night]

Not to mention that it takes money. Making huge investments based on trump's whims will drive up costs excruciatingly.

There is no huge investment to going out and picking something up off the ground, Wally.

 

[Into the Night]

For the alt right, everything is about expressing their emotions. They think business is about them expressing their emotions.

There is no such thing as an 'alt right', Wally. Buzzword fallacy.
It is DEMOCRATS that make emotional arguments. Inversion fallacy.