Similar versions of this article were published in The Daily Independent, Ridgecrest (June 17, 2026), The Bakersfield Californian (June 15, 2026), and Tehachapi News (June 15, 2026).
TRONA — Searles Valley Minerals, the Mojave Desert mining company that in February announced a reduction of 55% of its workforce, filed bankruptcy on Monday, June 13.
Company operations are at Trona, an unincorporated San Bernardino County community about 130 miles from Bakersfield and 25 miles from Ridgecrest, where most employees live. The company is headquartered in Overland Park, Kan.
In a news release, the company said it intends to use the Chapter 11 process “to conduct a competitive, court-supervised sale of substantially all its assets under Section 363 of the Bankruptcy Code.”
Voluntary petitions for relief under Chapter 11 were made in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware on Monday, June 13. Petitions were filed for Searles Valley Minerals Inc. and its affiliates, Trona Railway Company LLC and Searles Domestic Water Company LLC.
According to the news release, the company has “filed customary first-day motions seeking authority to operate normally throughout the Chapter 11 process, including continuing paying wages and benefits to active employees.”
Its Westend plant will continue to produce boron, sodium sulfate, salt and other products, the railway will continue to operate and the water company will continue to provide potable water service to its Trona customers.
President Dennis Cruise said the company has produced critical minerals from one of the world’s few water-soluble borate deposits for more than 150 years.
The town of Trona was named for the mineral that is the primary source of soda ash, an essential industrial chemical.
“As the soda ash market changed, we repositioned the business around borates — a mineral with no synthetic substitute and growing strategic importance,” Cruise said in the news release. “A court-supervised sale is the most orderly and transparent way to place this rare resource base, and the people who run it, with an owner who can invest in its next chapter.”
Court approval is sought for agreements to fund the company in the interim.
According to the news release, “a long-standing strategic supplier, Tata Chemicals North America Inc., has agreed to provide an unsecured, interest-free liquidity advance of up to $20 million. In addition, the company’s parent, Karnavati Holdings, Inc., is providing a $20 million junior debtor-in-possession financing facility.”
Karnavati Holdings, Inc., operates as a wholly owned subsidiary of Nirma Limited, a major, diversified industrial conglomerate based in India.
Tata Chemicals North America Inc., a leading global producer of natural soda ash, operates a large mining and manufacturing facility in Green River, Wyo. It is a subsidiary of a prominent Indian multinational and part of the global Tata Group.
A competitive, open auction sale of Searles Valley Minerals is planned, subject to bid procedures to be approved by the court.
According to the news release, the Section 363 sale process will be conducted by Lazard, the company’s investment banker. Building on a marketing process begun in 2025 in which more than 140 parties were contacted and 50 entered into confidentiality agreements, the company remains in active discussions with a number of interested parties.
Job cuts
In early February, the company announced plans to lay off more than half its local workforce, a total of about 300 people.
In a news release at the time, the company said its soda ash and boric acid plants have been battered by global competition and rising operating costs. It specifically pointed to lower-cost soda ash from China, which it said sells the product “at prices that California-based producers cannot reasonably match.”
Rising energy costs were also cited as a concern.
Also up for sale
News of the Searles Valley Minerals bankruptcy and planned sale follows word that one of Kern County’s largest employers plans to sell its borax mine.
As the crow flies, Rio Tinto’s borax mine at Boron is approximately 45 miles southwest of Trona. The two companies both produce boron, but use different processes. Rio Tinto provides nearly one-third of the global demand for borates and operates California’s largest open-pit mine. Searles Valley Minerals extracts commercial borates and boric acid from mineral-rich subsurface brines.
A Rio Tinto spokesperson on June 5 confirmed that the Anglo-Australian multinational mining company continues to look at divesting the mine as part of its new CEO’s campaign to shed non-core assets.
Bloomberg reported in November 2025 that Rio Tinto had decided to divest its U.S. boron assets. According to a Bloomberg report in April, those assets have drawn interest from more than a dozen potential bidders, including UK-based minerals company WE Soda, Canadian-based private equity firm Magris Resources and Texas-based minerals company U.S. Silica Holdings.
More information
More information about the bankruptcy filings is available online at cases.stretto.com/SVM.
CLAUDIA ELLIOTT is the founder and editor of The Mojave Beat.