APRIL 17, 2025 |
Photo – Inside a Wyoming Trona Mine – Courtesy Wyoming Mining Association website
In Sweetwater County, soda ash producer WE Soda has cut 48 jobs from its trona operations, including 32 salaried management positions and 16 contract positions.
The move follows the trona operator’s purchase of competitor Genesis Alkali, a transaction that was completed at the end of February.
Improving efficiency and reducing redundancy are the company’s goals in the move, according to WE Soda Vice President of Human Relations JoAnna DeWald.
The layoffs do not include hourly union workers.
According to U.S. Steel Workers Local 13214 President Marshal Cummings, he said he didn’t know all the details about the recent layoffs, but he was happy the cuts did not include union workers. Some union workers who were laid off last year have been hired back following the recent changes.
WE Soda is based in London. The company, considered the largest soda ash producer in the world, paid $1.4 billion to acquire Genesis Alkalai.
Southwest Wyoming is home to the world’s largest known deposit of trona. The mineral is processed into “natural” soda ash — a key commodity in the production of glass, baking soda and myriad other products.
