Michigan sits on a mineral worth billions — but it's 8000 feet underground – MLive.com

About 400 million years ago, Michigan was covered by seawater.Over time the waters evaporated leaving behind a deposit of potassium-rich salt now buried 8,000 feet deep. Underneath all that rock and soil could lie a billion-dollar industry for Michigan.“There’s a big enough deposit that it could be of great value to the country,” said Bill Harrison, director of the Michigan Geological Repository for Research and Education at Western Michigan University.A proposed mine is on the brink of tapping into the potash — potassium chloride — after securing state approval and funding. But the $1.2 billion project from Michigan Potash & Salt Company remains shrouded in environmental concerns despite its potential economic benefits.What is potash?Potash, a critical ingredient for fertilizer, is only found in a few places in North America. And Harrison believes Michigan’s supply, which stretches under eight mid-Michigan counties, is one of the purest deposits in the world.“It’s at least 100 feet thick through the underground environment here in Michigan,” Harrison said.The crystalized potash ore sits a mile-and-a-half under the earth’s surface — roughly one and half times the depth of the Grand Canyon. Michigan’s vast 2.9-million-acre deposit holds 75 million tons of material valued at $65 billion by…
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