New U.S. Soda Ash Players Jockey for Position Despite Market Woes

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). A poor soda ash market has put a damper on capital spending in the industry, but that has not stopped Natural Soda Incorporated (Rifle, Colorado), a subsidiary of AmerAlia, Incorporated (Nasdaqsc:AALA) (Aurora, Colorado), from hoping that it will become a player in the soda ash/sodium bicarbonate market. The company has pretty much put on hold plans to develop a Nahcolite solution mine and soda ash processing plant located in the Piceance Creek Basin 27 miles outside of Meeker, Colorado on the 1,320 acre Rock School lease. A poor soda ash market and competition from other soda ash players in the area, including new producer American Soda LLP, a division of Williams Energy (NYSE:WMB) (Tulsa, Oklahoma), has led to the postponement of the project.

Williams Energy announced earlier this year that it has put the maligned American Soda operations on the auction block as it sheds non-core business units. Williams owns a 60% interest in the company. American Soda began operations in late 2000.

AmerAlia has changed direction and instead of developing its own operations from scratch it will attempt to acquire an existing operation. AmerAlia has reportedly made offers to purchase White River Nahcolite Incorporated (Rifle, Colorado), which operates a nahcolite solution mine and soda bicarbonate plant on 8,000 acres adjacent to Natural Soda's property. AmerAlia has recently received a commitment letter from a lender for $22 million in financing, reportedly for acquisition purposes.

Wold Trona, which has been pursuing construction of a new soda ash mine and process plant in Wyoming since the early 90's, is reportedly making progress with the development of its new Crystaltron process and has recently built a demonstration plant in Colorado. The company initially wanted to build a $120 million commercial scale soda ash mine and plant in Green River, Wyoming, but has yet to gather the necessary funding. "Although the company is not ruling out the possibility of building a mine and plant in the long-term, the short term focus is on perfecting the new process and selling the process to interested soda ash processors," according to Joseph Govreau, Manager of Metals & Minerals for Industrialinfo.com. "We have been tracking the Wold Trona project since 1994."