GENERAL32465 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

III IIIIIIIIIIIIIIII T-~- ~~~z i~ World-class baking soda mine may speedup production i Y :.*. :RIFLE -Thirty miles northwest of this Western Slope town is a mine that is unique in the world because of the purity of its nahcolite, also known as sodium bicarbonate or bak- ing soda. The mine has reserves of 85 mil- lion tons of high- purity nahcolite, which is now selling for $160 to $I80 a COLORADO `°"' ROUNDUP Houston-based NaTec Resources Inc. has owned leases for the mine for more than 20 years, but until last (all market demand did not appear to justify production. New demand created by the 1990 passage of the Clean Air Ac[ prompted the mine's opening, said C~leitn Hobatschk, chief financial officer for NaTec. Nahcolite helps public utilities, such as Public Service Co. of Colorado, reduce emissions from their smokestacks. The nahcolite combines with sulfur dioxide gases to form a sodium sulfate solid that can be captured before escaping the stack. "That is NaTec's main market thrust," said Hobratschk, but "[hat market has not developed as quick{y as we envisioned." As a result, last month NaTec formed a joint venture sharing 50 percent of the mine. with Overland Park, Kan.-based North American Chemical Co. North American paid $l0 million for its stake in the venture. The Kansas company has an "estab- lished market (for nahcolite/baking soda) in animal (eed," which helps t+nimals' digestive process. The agreement could boost production at the Colorado nahcolite facility, which now employs 24 people and produces 20,000 tons of the material a year. That translates to yearly revenues of $3.2 mil- lion to $4.I million. Phase one design capacity of the mine is six times greater, at 125,00() tons per year, and production will increase as the market warrants, said Hobratschk.