What are the most important deposits of sodium and potassium do you know?
Back in the twenties, the exploration of geologists was crowned with success and this contributed to the discovery of a rich deposit in Solikamsk, it became the largest in the world. Sinking underground from 100 to 300 m, there are billions of tons of sylvinite. (Silvinite is a combined crystals of potassium chloride and atrium chloride.) Similar in composition deposits are found in Belarus, the sylvinite deposit near Soligorsk, on which a potash plant was built.
Sodium is a fairly popular element. More than 220 sodium minerals of various forms have been identified (feldspars, plagioclases, halite, saltpeter, thenardite, mirabilite). The content (in% by mass) of sodium in stone meteorites is 7 × 10-1, in ultrabasic rocks – 5.7 × 10-1, in basic rocks – 1.94, in medium ones – 3.0, in acidic rocks – 2.77, in clays – 9.6 • 10-1, in sandstones – 3.3 • 10-1, in carbonate rocks – 4 • 10-2, in ocean water – 1.03534. Using evaporation in closed sea basins (for example, lagoons), salt lakes in steppes and deserts, powerful deposits of sodium salts are formed. In Spain, the Salado Valley, in China, about 1000 salt lakes, Russia – Iletsk.