Urals Potassium Combine

(also Uralkalii), an industrial association under the Ministry of the Chemical Industry of the USSR. Organized in 1974, the Urals Potassium Combine comprises five operations, two in Solikamsk and three in Berezniki. The source of raw materials is the Verkhnekama potassium salt deposit. The combine produces potassium fertilizers, enriched carnallite, ferrous bromide, commercial table salt, and mixed salts.

The first Solikamsk plant went into operation in 1934; in 1975, after modernization, it produced 1 million tons of mineral fertilizers. The other Solikamsk plant, with an output of 2.5 million tons of fertilizers per year, went into operation in early 1975. The first Berezniki plant, having an annual capacity of 2.6 million tons of fertilizers, opened in 1963; the second, whose capacity is 3.5 million tons, opened in 1970; and the third, with an output of 3.6 million tons, has been in operation since 1974.

In 1975 the Urals Potassium Combine produced 9.8 million tons of potassium fertilizers, that is, more than one-half of the country’s total output.

Construction of two new plants is currently under way; work on the Novosolikamsk plant began in 1974, and construction of a fourth plant in Berezniki began in 1973. Each plant will have an annual capacity of 3.5 million tons of fertilizer. The first Solikamsk plant, named in honor of the Tenth Anniversary of the October Revolution, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labor in 1971.