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Outlook for the future
The muriate production appears to be secure and stable for the foreseeable fumre.
The Carlsbad mines have a freight advantage over imports from Canada. Much attc .n
has focused on imports from Europe, particularly from the former U.S.S.R. TIlcre may
be brief periods ohllIIlJ.ping of muriate from those sources. However, the mines in
Belarus have to transport and market the product through other newly independent states,
each of which will seek a share of export earnings, this makes that supply not ml. of a
threat to Carlsbad. The deposits in the Urals are burdened by a long rail route to export
ports.In Thailand and Laos the known deposits are carnallite, which requires more
expensive processing. When developed, these resources will DO doubt frod their buyers
within the rapidly..cxpanding Asian markets.
The outlook for langbeinite must be considered as bright until a new discovery is
made elsewhere. Such a discovery is most likely to occur in the former U.S.S.R., but it
would be plagued with the sanle complexity of mming, t:raru:t, and marketing as are
their vast sylvite deposits.
Finally, the demand for chemical fertilizers will continue to grow in parallel with
the world's population and e'''' more so as underdeveloped nations attempt to become
more efficient in their farming methods and land resources for such activity continues to
shrink. The world's kncwn potash production and reserves were reported by the USBM
in Table 2 of their WIPF potash evaluation (Weisner et al., 1978). If correct, then the
reserves are capable of supplying potash for the world's markets for the next 400 yrs.
The reserves in the Carlsbad District have been estimated at around 51 million
tons equivalent ~O (EMNRD, 1992). The life of the district would be on the order of 25
yrs from present. However, Austin and Barker :190) have pointed out that longevity of
individual mines varies considerably, with one lasting less than a decade and another over
100 yrs. .•.
CURRENT MININGVlETBODS
Conventiooal mining-Conventionai mining is a term often used in the Carlsbad
mines to define theundercut-drill-blast-load-transport-convey mining method. In fact, this
system is now limited to hard langbeinite ore mining only. so it is not the most common
mining method currently used because sylvite.ores are mined with drum mining .
machines. Nonetheless, a description of the conver::onal system is worthwhile in that it
was used to evaluate the ~':nomics of mining and processing the 4th ore zone langbeinite
resources in the WIPP area.
Figure 1 is a rather typical layout for conventional mining. The method is room
and pillar. Pillar dimensions range from 30 to as much as 60 ft on a side depending on
mining depth and extraC.i) ratio. The pillars can be equidimensional or rectangUlar, but
the aspect ratio is always near 1.0. Room widths hold fairly close to 28 ft. Figure 1
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