Ppg Industries Canada Ltd.

Elmar L Goldsmith

Byron P Edmonds

Edward P Helvenston

Anti-caking agent is thoroughly distributed upon particulate hygroscopic materials, e.g., particulate inorganic salts such as potassium chloride and sodium chloride, by contacting an agitated stream of the particulate material with an aqueous dispersion of anticaking agent and then passing the treated material through a fluid bed of the treated particulate material. The pretreated particulate hygroscopic material is typically warm, i.e., has a temperature above 25.degree. C., and is cooled in the fluid bed which is fluidized with dehumidified, fluidizing gas having a temperature lower than the treated particulate hygroscopic material entering the bed. Cooled particulate hygroscopic material having a coating of anticaking agent distributed substantially uniformly over the surface of the particles and having a water content substantially the same as the pretreated warm particulate material is removed from the fluid bed.

Method for treating potash with anticaking agent

The invention disclosed herein relates to solution mining soluble ore deposits by creating a cavity substantially entirely filled with a deep bed of rubble. Solvent introduced at the top of the cavity is permitted to percolate downwardly through the rubble and is withdrawn near the bottom of the cavity. More specifically, the invention relates to selective solution mining generally horizontal beds of sylvinite, i.e., a mixture of crystals of halite (NaCl) and sylvite (KCl) wherein water or salt brine is washed down a generally vertical bore hole into the deposits and recovered enriched with dissolved KCl.

Rubble mining

Disclosed is a method of increasing the solution mining rate of potassium chloride from a cavity in a subterranean ore deposit containing potassium chloride and sodium chloride, in which cavity ore has been rubblized to effect a large contact surface area, by (1) solution mining the ore rubble at a first temperature for a time sufficient to determine the mining rate at that temperature; (2) increasing the temperature of the cavity solution to a temperature determined to be near the highest temperature at which the invariant composition is achievable at the solvent dissolving rate; and (3) solution mining the ore at the higher temperature.

Solution mining potassium chloride from heated subterranean cavities

Disclosed is a method of preferentially solution mining potassium chloride from a stratified subterranean deposit of potassium chloride and sodium chloride where a plurality of strata are present in a single common solution mining cavity. According to an embodiment of the disclosed method, a first aqueous working solution is established in a lower zone of the cavity in contact with lower strata. Thereafter, a second aqueous working solution is established in contact with a higher zone intended to be preferentially mined. The second aqueous working solution is maintained at a lower specific gravity than the first aqueous working solution. Effluent is withdrawn from the second aqueous working solution near the lower boundary thereof and an extracting solution is added to the cavity at a rate sufficient to maintain the second aqueous working solution less dense than the subjacent solution, i.e., the first aqueous working solution. The disclosed method is useful in preferentially mining zones that have a potassium chloride content substantially different than adjacent zones.

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Regina, Canada

Elmar L Goldsmith