Computer-aided design and cost estimation model of commercial soda ash processes for Turkish trona mineral

The Turkish trona deposit was discovered in 1979 during coal exploration. Taking into account all the features of the deposit, it is possible to state that the Turkish trona deposits are the second biggest natural sodium carbonate formation in the world. The studies showed that trona is present at a depth of 150-400 m. Total reserves of trona mineral is about 300 million tonnes. The average grade is 84% trona. This mineral resource may allow the natural production of chemicals such as soda ash, sodium hydroxide and other sodium derivatives for about a hundred years. If the possibilities of underground and solution mining methods have been considered and this project proceeds, it could result in substantial changes in the European soda ash market. The main objective of this study is to investigate the applicability of the solution mining technique to the Turkish trona deposit. To achieve this scope a computer aided design and cost estimation model was developed both for conventional and solution mining techniques. The model consists of the following submodels: (a) material balance, (b) wellfield analysis, (c) surface plant analysis, and (d) cost analysis. The developed computer program calculates the size of the equipment, fixed capital, working capital, manufacturing expenses, product cost, net annual profit and rate of return for the different soda ash production capacities. As the main result of this study, solution mining (alkaline extraction process) was more advantageous when compared with the conventional techniques (monohydrate and sesquicarbonate processes). The advantages of the alkaline extraction process can be summarized with lower investment, production and unit costs and as a consequence of these, a higher profit.