Every crop that feeds America needs potash. Without it, yields fall and fields fail. There is no substitute and no way to manufacture it. The United States imports 92 per cent to 94 per cent of what it needs.
“Some critical minerals are everyday things like potash that we use as a fertilizer. We need it to sustain our economic viability in our country, but we import a large percentage of it,” says Susan Patton, principal consultant with RESPEC.
On November 7, 2025, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) added potash to the 2025 Federal Critical Minerals List. The supply numbers drove that decision. Canada supplies 79 per cent of U.S. imports, Russia another 12 per cent. Belarus, which operates within Russia’s political and economic orbit, ranks among the world’s largest producers [].
New Mexico, Utah, and Michigan are the country’s three potash-producing regions. , bringing solution mining knowledge and geotechnical proficiency to some of the most demanding deposits in the country.
The Paradox Basin in southeastern Utah is among the most significant, with approximately two-billion tons of potash across multiple horizons. Developing the basin gives western farmers a domestic supply source and cuts transportation costs on every ton of imported product.
“Mining from the Paradox Basin directly reduces U.S. dependence on foreign potash imports,” says Camilo Rojas, project geologist with RESPEC.
The deposits sit deeper than 7,000 feet in places, which rules out conventional mining. Solution mining is the only practical method. The process injects hot water into the potash bed, dissolves the target minerals, and pumps the resulting brine to the surface for recovery. In the water-constrained west, a closed-loop mechanical evaporation system reuses water rather than losing it through solar evaporation ponds, reducing the surface footprint and water draw.
The problem is what happens underground after the cavern forms.
RESPEC’s cavern group has spent decades solving exactly this problem. The team’s geomechanical modeling spans solution mining, hydrogen storage, and deep salt cavern design across North America, including projects where cavern depths and salt behaviour pushed well beyond industry norms.
Salt is not static. It creeps under pressure and reshapes over time. A cavern that appears stable at excavation can slowly close or fail, taking the investment with it. Modeling that behaviour requires geomechanical analysis of cavern stability, subsidence potential, and failure risk.
“The potash knowledge and the geotechnical need to be married together to make it happen,” says Patton.
That combination is rare. Major potash projects have absorbed billions and never reached production. The Paradox Basin presents depths that exceed most operators’ direct experience, where margins for error are smaller and consequences larger.
“We’ve led and managed exploration campaigns, analytical work, and technical reporting for potash operations in the Paradox Basin for two decades,” says Erik Hemstad, manager of RESPEC’s Grand Junction office. “The basin rewards operators who understand what they’re dealing with before they start drilling.”
In January 2026, Governor Spencer Cox unveiled Mission Critical, a mine-to-market strategy targeting permitting timelines of 18 months or less on state lands, aiming to make Utah the nation’s top destination for critical mineral extraction and processing [Deseret News, January 20, 2026].
The national case for domestic potash production has not been stronger. The Paradox Basin has the resource, and Utah has the will to develop it.
For operators working in the Paradox Basin, the question is not whether the resource is there but whether the engineering behind the project is strong enough to reach it. That is exactly the problem RESPEC was built to solve.
RESPEC is an employee-owned engineering and consulting company founded in 1969, with offices across the United States and Canada. The company’s Mining and Energy group provides full life-cycle services for solution mining, underground storage, and critical minerals projects, from exploration and resource estimation through mine design, cavern modeling, and operational support. For more information, visit respec.com.
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