Borax in Business

In the Mojave Desert, Kern County, Calif., a kernite* mine has been discovered which will revolutionize the borax industry, according to Dr. Waldemar T. Schaller of the U. S. Geological Survey. When washed and recrystallized, kermite is ready for market as pure sodium borate. All previous processes of manufacturing borax have been costly, complicated, unsatisfactory. Italy has condensed volcanic steam containing boric acid to get it; Chile has refined and purified ulexite at great expense; the U. S. has mined borax from mineral deposits around Death Valley, a process dangerous and difficult; or has manufactured it from brine, a method in excellent standing before the discovery of the kernite mine.

This increase in production will take borax out of the idle rich class of chemicals and put it to work in many industries which previously could not afford it. Already its value is well known. It has long been a familiar household god in the kitchen, a mild antiseptic (boric acid) in the medicine chest. It keeps glass from cracking under the strain of change in temperature; is used therefore in making lamp chimneys, incandescent lamps, baking dishes. Enamel ware, plumbing fixtures, chemical apparatus owe much of their resistance to borax. But wherever borax has gone in, the price has gone up. Since the discovery of kernite, borax has fallen steadily in price as shown last week by the Industrial Bulletin (monthly) of Arthur D. Little, Inc.; expectations are that this decrease will continue, not only because of the increased supply but because of the competition between borax from brine and borax from kernite.

This competition is being fostered by British finance in spite of the fact that the U. S. is now the greatest store and supply house for borax in the world. The American Potash and Chemical Corporation, present producers of borax from brine, are a subsidiary of the New Consolidated Gold Fields of South Africa in London; the Pacific Coast Borax Co., present producers of borax from kernite, are a subsidiary of the Borax Consolidated of London.

* Kernite or rasorite, a newly discovered mineral, unites with water to form sodium borate.