MINING THE SALTS 489 



taining large quantities of potassium and magnesium chlorids. 1 

 Shafts were sunk in other places, and with such favorable results 

 that in 1862 potash salts became a regular article of commerce 

 from that locality. At first these salts were regarded as trouble- 

 some impurities in the brine from which common salt was to 

 be made, but at this time the common salt has come to be re- 

 garded as the disturbing factor. At the present time the entire 

 product is controlled by a syndicate of nine large firms located 

 at Stassfurt and vicinity. Outside of the syndicate properties 

 a shaft has been sunk at Sonderhausen and also at Anderbeck 

 (Halberstadt), which, however, have produced only carnallit. 



It is thus seen that the potash deposits extend over a wide area 

 in Germany, and there is little fear of the deposits becoming ex- 

 hausted in many centuries. In this country no potash deposits 

 of any commercial importance have been discovered; but the 

 geological conditions requisite to these formations have not been 

 wanting, and their future discovery is not improbable. 



417. Deposits of Potash Salts in Alsace. Up to the present 

 time it has been supposed that the deposits of potash salts in 

 Germany were confined to Saxony and to the Duchy of Anhalt. 2 

 The investigations of recent years have shown also that there are 

 deposits in Mecklenburg, in the Duchy of Brunswick and in 

 the provinces of Hanover and Oldenburg. It has also been re- 

 ported recently that extensive deposits have been found in Al- 

 sace between the towns of Soultz and Regisheim, on the north, 

 and Niedermonchviller on the south. These deposits were found 

 at the depths of 500 and 700 meters, consisting of a layer of 

 potash salts of superior quality one meter in thickness, and of 

 an inferior quality of five meters in thickness. The crude salts 

 were found to contain from 20 to 40 per cent, of potassium 

 chlorid. The total quantity of potash salts produced in Ger- 

 many in 1906 is estimated at 5,500,000 tons and of a value of 

 $20,500,000. 



418. Mining the Salts. The potash-bearing strata, from 1200 

 to 2500 feet below the earth's surface, are reached by ordinary 



' Maercker, Die Kalidiingung, 2nd Edition, 1893 : i. 

 * The American Fertilizer, 1908, 28 : 15. 



