Within Westvaco and Granger, Genesis Alkali operates eight processing facilities, comprising the world’s largest natural soda ash mine and production site in the world: Sesqui PlantĬonstructed in 1953, the sesqui plant was the first soda ash plant at the Green River site. The second site, the Granger facility, was acquired from Texas Gulf Soda Ash in 1999.

It is one of the lowest-cost, natural soda ash operations in the world. The Westvaco facility was established in 1948. Genesis Alkali operates two manufacturing sites. Longwall mining is done with a 750-foot long machine that removes 100 percent of the ore in its path, making it more efficient than room and pillar mining. Room and pillar mining means that some trona is removed, creating a “room”, and some trona is left behind to form the “pillar” that supports the mine’s tunnels. The two methods used to extract trona are called “room and pillar” mining and longwall mining. By contrast, the city of San Francisco has about 1,500 miles of roadway. Over the decades of mining trona here, some 2,500 miles of tunnel systems have been created. Virtually every day of the year, Green River’s mine workers ride elevators down 170 stories to the mine’s subsurface, which spans about nine miles from north to south, and six miles from east to west. Our primary trona bed is located 1,600 feet underground and averages about 10 feet thick.

What is a dredge with a process plant