Compass Minerals

Compass Minerals International, Inc is an American public company that makes important minerals like salt, magnesium chloride, and sulfate of potash. The company is based in Overland Park, Kansas.

It sells large amounts of salt to help keep roads safe during winter in North America and the United Kingdom. Compass Minerals also makes products that help plants grow around the world.

Besides road salt, the company makes other useful products, like salt for cooking, products to keep water clean, and minerals used in farms and factories. It even helps businesses in the United Kingdom keep their records organized.

Production methods and facilities

Compass Minerals gets salt from deep underground using special mining methods. They have big salt mines in places like Goderich, Ontario, Cote Blanche, Louisiana, and Winsford, Cheshire. These mines can make millions of tons of salt each year.

They also make salt using water and sunlight. At the Great Salt Lake near Ogden, Utah, they take water from the lake and let the sun dry it up to make salt and other helpful minerals. This way uses less energy than other methods.

Business segments

Compass Minerals has two main business areas: Salt and Plant Nutrition.

The Salt business finds, makes, and sells sodium chloride and magnesium chloride in North America and the U.K. Its biggest job is helping to clear ice from roads. It sells large amounts of rock salt to states, areas, and road workers to keep roads safe in winter. It also makes other salt products like liquid magnesium chloride for melting ice and dust, and special treated salt for very cold weather.

The Plant Nutrition business makes sulfate of potash fertilizer. Most of its sales in the U.S. are in the Western and Southeastern parts, and it also sells to countries in Latin America, Japan, Australia, and New Zealand. In 2021, Compass Minerals sold off some of its plant nutrient business.

Ranks

Compass Minerals is the largest producer of salt in North America and the United Kingdom. It is also the biggest maker of sulfate of potash fertilizer in the Western Hemisphere and the top producer of magnesium chloride for de-icing and de-dusting roads in North America.

In 2012, the company had sales of $942 million and a market value of $2.5 billion. Compass Minerals is part of important stock indexes and was once named one of the fastest-growing companies in the United States. The company started long ago, but it became a public company in December 2003.