It may surprise you to know that one of the most important minerals in history has been … potash.

Many centuries ago, humans discovered that if you took a pot, put in wood ash, boiled it then strained out the residue, you’d get potash—which had two very special qualities.

First, when mixed into soil it made an excellent fertilizer for crops. Second, when mixed with sulfur and charcoal it made gunpowder.

Potash was so valuable that the very first U.S. patent, signed by George Washington himself, was for a process to make more potent potash.

As the country grew, and more fertilizer and gunpowder were needed, whole forests were burned to make potash.

Trying to understand its properties, chemists figured out that potash contains several compounds of a metal they called potassium.

But there was still no other commercial supply…until the Germans discovered—and began to mine and export—potassium salts, like sylvite. And quickly dominated the market.

Shortly before World War I, they cut off potassium to the U.S. and other countries, who went looking for their own mines.

Today, Canada produces nearly a third of the world’s potassium. The U.S. imports most of ours from them. And most of that goes into fertilizer to grow crops to feed the American people.

In this way, potassium remains an important and strategic commodity.