Sisecam has offered $285 million to buy out a minority stake in Ciner Group’s soda ash operations in Wyoming, USA.
The Istanbul-headquartered glassmaker is also negotiating with its Turkish compatriot over its partnership shares in Pacific Soda.
The Ciner Group owns a 20.4% indirect share in Sisecam Wyoming as well as a 40% non-controlling partnership share in Pacific Soda. Sisecam will seek to buy them out for $285,389,000.
Sisecam made the announcement in a disclosure on November 29.
In its disclosure, Sisecam said its decision is in line with company goals to ‘further strengthen its holistic approach and effective management in the region and industries it operates, as well as to become a global leader in soda ash production.’
The move would make Sisecam as the parent of Pacific Soda and the largest new trona mine in the largest trona patch in the world.
Trona is a limited resource, with only three known locations in the world. These are Wyoming, China and Turkey, but Wyoming’s, at a 90% share, is the largest reserve.
According to the Wyoming Mining Association, the site has 40 billion tons of trona — enough to supply the world’s projected soda ash needs for the next 2,000 years.
Glass making consumes about half of the soda ash produced by the site, followed by the chemical industry, which uses about a quarter of the output.
Sisecam has operations in 14 countries on four continents, including the United States and North America.
