The Economic Potential of Minerals and Salt pans in Urmia lake

The Studied area is situated in Urmia lake at northwest of iran and 6 region including: Rahmanloo port, Aghgonbad Port,Kalantari Bridge, Sharafkhane Port, Kazemkhandashi District and Chichest District were Selected as the studied area. To achieve the above-mentioned target, the project was studied in three levels. Surface brine, inter granular brine and salt. And there are three elements magnesium, potash and lithium. There were selected as target elements. Finally, 255solid samples of Salt and 205 brine sample were analysis by XRD, ICP-OES Flame photo meter methods. To determine economic worth of Surface brine the method of evaporation pans was applied and to determine economic worth of subsurface brine and salts the method of manual drilling in sal bed was used. Finally, it was revealed that: If present volume of surface brine of the lake is considered as 1.5 billion m3 with density nearly 1.29, there are 84,000,000 ton unconcentrated magnesium, 15,000,000 ton un-concentrated potash and 28.455 ton un-concentrated lithium in each 1.5 billion m3 of Surface Brine. The average value of magnesium elements in un-concentrated sub-surface brine is estimated 58.91 gr/lit, average value of potash element in Unconcentrated sub-surface brine is estimated 15.64 gr/lit and average value of lithium element in un-concentrated subsurface brine is estimated 0.016 gr/lit. Assuming that density is equal in all region (1.29), in312.511.111 lit intergranular brine. There are 18.419.375ton magnesium,4.887.511ton potash and 5,000 ton lithium. The regions of southern margins such as Rahmanlou port, Chichest and Aghgonbad are in priority of salt extraction from inter granular brine. The minimum value of certain mass of salt in lakes bed (before drought period) was calculated 2.711.111.111ton. Assuming that density is equal in all region (2.16), in1.250.000.000m3 bed salt of Urmia Lake. There are 11.651.111ton magnesium, 5.987.511 ton potash and 21.251 ton lithium.