Company to mine salt, store wind
By JAMES MacPHERSON Associated Press Writer © 2009 The Associated Press
Feb. 10, 2009, 4:39PM
BISMARCK, N.D. — A Colorado company with backers in Britain has leased more than 5,000 acres in northwestern North Dakota to mine salt and store wind.
Denver-based Dakota Salts LLC says it wants to use voids created by mining in Burke County to store compressed air to be sold to wind farms to generate electricity. The mining caverns also could store carbon dioxide from North Dakota's coal-burning power plants or natural gas from the state's oil fields, the company said.
Walter Doyle, the London-based chairman of Dakota Salts, said the rich salt and untapped potash deposits in the northwestern part of the state, along with huge wind farms planned in the area, made the project attractive. The newly formed company intends to use idled drill rigs from the state's oil patch to bore for salt and potash, a form of salt used for fertilizer, he said...
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