Intrepid Potash HB Solar Solution Mine Ponds, New Mexico

This set of evaporation ponds covering a square mile was built a few years ago by Intrepid Potash, as part of a new potash mining operation known as the HB Solar Solution Mine, a hydraulic mining operation. The evaporation ponds hold water that has been pumped through flooded underground mines, dissolving ore from the walls and pillars, to settle and dry out here. After a year or so the dried residue is scraped up and processed into potash fertilizer. Construction on the HB solution mine project began in 2012, and is costing up to $300 million, as it involves miles of pipelines and other infrastructure, including six injection wells that pump salt water into four disused underground mines, and five extraction wells that pump it out and convey it to the ponds. After being further concentrated by evaporation, the material is conveyed as a slurry in a pipeline to a new beneficiation plant at the nearby West Mine site. After filtration, flotation, and dewatering, the potassium chloride is transported by truck to the North Mine facility for further drying, grading, and preparations for sale. Up to 200,000 tons of potash a year expected to be generated from the HB Solar Solution mining operation, for a run of almost 30 years.