· First production

· Bedded trona was discovered in a core when drilling for oil at John Hay No. 1 well in 1938, south of Westvaco, Wyoming.

· Trona mining began in 1947 by Westvaco Chlorine Products. The Westvaco mine and plant are shown to the left.

· FMC opened first plant in 1948

· A report by the U.S. Geological Survey in 1997 estimated the total reserve to be 127 billion tons of trona and mixed trona and halite in beds of over four feet thick. However, only 40 billion tons are currently considered recoverable. The BLM estimates that one square mile of eight foot Trona bed contains 14.8 million tons of Trona. At the current rate of operation, Wyoming's reserves of Trona will last 2,350 of years.

The location of this resource is shown in red on the map below: