Wyoming is home to the world’s largest trona deposits—an estimated resource of 127 billion tons, with 40 billion tons estimated to be recoverable. Since 1949, Wyoming mines have produced 633.2 million tons of trona, which is the state’s top international export.
Trona is a sodium carbonate compound found as an evaporite mineral in the Green River Formation in southwest Wyoming. Trona is refined to produce soda ash, commonly known as baking soda. Soda ash is an important component of a wide variety of products, the most significant being glass, which consumes half of the soda ash produced in the world. It is also used in soaps, detergents, water purifications, cattle feed, swimming pool products, medicines, paper, textiles, and toothpaste. The chemical industry uses soda ash to manufacture sodium bicarbonate, sodium chromates, sodium phosphates, sodium silicates, and sodium cyanide.
Trona is mined underground in the Green River Basin in southwest Wyoming by mechanical mining or solution mining techniques. After extraction, the trona is brought to the surface for refining where it is processed into soda ash. Wyoming’s trona industry competes globally with the production of synthetic soda ash. While natural soda ash is less expensive to produce and has a lower greenhouse gas footprint, it only accounts for around 30% of the world’s supply.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Wyoming Mining Association
Wyoming’s trona reserves are estimated to last 2,350 years at the current extraction rate, and the diversification of its applications indicates strong future interest in this resource.
Looking ahead, the Dry Creek Trona Project by Pacific Soda, which spans seven square miles south of Green River, has the potential to expand the industry. This initiative is expected to yield approximately six million tons of soda ash each year through solution mining and will create new job opportunities in the state.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Wyoming Mining Association
Wyoming State Geological Survey
Photo Credit: Courtesy of Wyoming Mining Association
