Green River Trona Boom Fuels Sweetwater County's Record Surge

Sweetwater County's trona sector is booming, with Wyoming's production surging amid global demand for soda ash used in glass, solar panels and electric vehicles. The Green River area's ancient Lake Gosiute deposits hold the world's largest trona reserve, fueling operations by major employers like Tronox, Ciner Wyoming LP, TATA Chemicals North America, Solvay Minerals Inc. and Church & Dwight Co. Inc. A Cowboy State Daily report highlighted a 15% production increase generating $500 million in economic impact for local businesses and jobs, while the industry overall tops $470 million and growing.

The Bureau of Land Management's Kemmerer and Rock Springs offices approved Pacific Soda LLC's Dry Creek Trona Mine south of Green River in 2024, authorizing well fields, processing plants and infrastructure to extract trona from 2,300 feet underground. The nearly $6 billion project, proposed in 2020, eyes 117 million tons of recoverable trona to yield 6 million metric tons of soda ash and 440,900 metric tons of sodium bicarbonate annually. Construction could start early 2025, peaking at 4,200 workers and creating 530 permanent high-paying jobs, with $300 million in construction payroll and $396 million yearly local sales.

Rival WE Soda Ltd.'s Project West southwest of Green River plans 3 million tons of soda ash yearly, doubling investments to nearly $9 billion across both ventures. These developments aim to bolster U.S. competitiveness against Chinese imports, potentially making Wyoming the global trona leader. Pacific Soda projects $580 million in direct annual economic output for Sweetwater County, transforming small communities with housing and employment amid the basin's makeover.