Compass Minerals International, Inc is an American public company that, through its subsidiaries, is a leading producer of minerals, including salt, magnesium chloride and sulfate of potash. Based in Overland Park, Kansas; the company provides bulk treated and untreated highway deicing salt to customers in North America and the United Kingdom and plant nutrition products to growers worldwide. Compass Minerals also produces consumer deicing and water conditioning products, consumer and commercial culinary salt, and other mineral-based products for consumer, agricultural and industrial applications. In addition, Compass Minerals provides records management services to businesses throughout the United Kingdom.
Production methods and facilities
Underground salt mining
Underground salt mining produces rock salt using both drill-and-blast and continuous mining techniques in deep deposits. Compass Minerals is the largest rock salt producer in North America and the U.K. It operates underground salt mines at Goderich, Ontario, the largest salt mine in the world with an annual capacity of 9 million tons; Cote Blanche, Louisiana, with annual capacity of 3.4 million tons; and Winsford, Cheshire, United Kingdom, with annual capacity of 1.5 million tons.