Mineral Deposit Type
The Great Salt Lake is a terminal lake that hosts enriched brine containing dissolved minerals at concentrations sufficient for economic recovery of certain resources. The mineral resource of the Great Salt Lake currently supports economic recovery of sodium (as NaCl), potassium (as SOP), and magnesium (as MgCl2).

Geologic Description
The GSL Facility produces saleable minerals from brines sourced from the Great Salt Lake. These brines are upgraded through solar evaporation within large constructed ponds. The following describes the geologic relevance of the Great Salt Lake and lays out the man-made aquifers within the evaporation ponds which host brines with high lithium concentrations.

The GSL Facility is located on the shore of the Great Salt Lake in northern Utah. This location is within the geographic transition from the Rocky Mountains, to the Basin and Range Province to the west.

The Great Salt Lake is a remnant of Lake Bonneville, a large Late-Pleistocene pluvial lake that once covered much of western Utah. At its maximum extent, Lake Bonneville covered an area of approximately 20,000 square miles. Lake Bonneville has been in a state of contraction for the past 15,000 years and has resulted in the formation of remnant lakes that include the Great Salt Lake, Sevier Lake, and Utah Lake (Figure 6-1). Evaporation rates higher than input from precipitation and runoff have driven the lake contraction and has s ........

The Ogden Site has been operating for over 50 years in a similar context as it is today. When the Ogden Site was commissioned, the high concentration of potassium and other minerals relative to the potential to extract potassium and other minerals using solar evaporation made possible by the site’s location in a high desert with high summer season evaporation made the prospect of solar evaporation to concentrate brines attractive and appropriate. Further, the shallow bathymetry around the perimeter of the GSL renders the construction and operation of solar evaporation ponds feasible.

Current Pond Processes
Mining operations at the Ogden facility are not typical when compared to a normal mine in that there is no actual open pit or underground extraction. The mining of the potassium and other salt effectively involves pumping of brine from the Great Salt Lake into evaporation ponds.

Compass Minerals has approximately 361,000 acre-ft of brine rights that it can extract from the north arm of the Great Salt Lake on an annual basis. Based on recent operational data, the Operation has typically extracted, on average, around 125,000 acre-ft of brine per year. Most of this brine is pumped into the West Ponds with the remainder going into the East Ponds. The process utilizes the concentrated brine pumped from the north arm of the Great Salt Lake, concentrates the compounds through a series of solar evaporation ponds over a three-year timespan. The evaporatio ........

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