What minerals are produced from Great Salt Lake? 
How and by whom are they recovered?

In 1995, five mineral-extraction companies operated near the lake. These companies used solar evaporation to concentrate the lake waters to produce either salts or highly concentrated brine (water with high salt content) products. These companies paid a royalty to the State of Utah (owner of the lake), on the salts and other materials produced and sold.

Sodium chloride (common salt) is produced by: (1) evaporating the water in shallow ponds that cover many thousands of acres, (2) precipitating the salt, and (3) harvesting it from the bottom of the ponds.The collected salt is rinsed, washed, dried, and screened to produce different product sizes and grades.

Common salt is also pressed into pellets for use in water softeners, and formed into salt-lick blocks (some with added minerals) for livestock consumption. Large quantities of bulk salt are shipped out-of-state for use in industry. Much of the salt is used locally for melting ice on roadways.

Harvesting potassium-bearing salts from large solar-evaporation pond. Salts will by processed into potassium sulfate, a mineral fertilizer.

Food-grade, or table salt is not produced from the lake, because its purity cannot be guaranteed without additional, costly processing. The table salt used in Utah comes from salt-processing facilities in New York, Ohio, Kansas, Louisiana, Texas, or California.

Great Salt Lake also yields salt products other than common salt. The salt industry produces potassium sulfate, a commercial fertilizer derived from potassium and magnesium salts.

Magnesium-chloride brine is used in the production of magnesium metal and chlorine gas and as a dust suppressant. The production of these salts and highly concentrated brines requires additional evaporation beyond that needed to precipitate common salt. These products also require complex chemical processing.

Mirabilite, a hydrated sodium-sulfate salt, commonly used in the production of sodium sulfate or salt cake, precipitates from concentrated lake water only during the cold winter months.

The table below lists the names of the five salt companies that operated on the Great Salt Lake and the products they produced.

Companies extracting mineral products from the Great Salt Lake, and their products (1995).
COMPANY	PRODUCTS
AKZO Salt of Utah	Sodium chloride
Great Salt Lake Minerals Corp.	Potassium sulfate and magnesium chloride products
Magnesium Corporation of America	Magnesium metal, chlorine gas
Morton Salt Company	Sodium chloride
North American Salt Company	Sodium chloride