Facing steep market pressure, WE Soda announced Wednesday that it's shifting from dry-ore underground mining to solution mining and cutting its Sweetwater County workforce by more than 41%, from more than 850 to about 500.
WE Soda became the world’s largest natural soda ash producer in 2025 when it bought Genesis Alkali’s Westvaco and Granger operations in a $1.4 billion deal.
During a visit to Green River from London in September, WE Soda CEO Alasdair Warren told Cowboy State Daily that a flood of low-cost Chinese natural soda ash production has fundamentally disrupted traditional export markets.
“Five years ago, we wouldn’t have been having this conversation,” Warren said. “Everybody in the soda ash patch would have said, ‘China, you can kind of ignore because they look after themselves. They don’t export much. They don’t import much.’”
Now, Warren said, that’s no longer the case.
China has built a wave of cheap new production in recent years by dissolving its natural soda ash in place underground, skipping the costly step of digging a mine at all.
That approach takes less energy and fewer workers, and it has let Chinese producers undercut Wyoming’s prices in markets the state has long sold to.
“Every export ton that comes from Wyoming today loses money,” Warren said. “Not because of anything that Wyoming does, but just the export market pricing is very low.”
To keep up, WE Soda said it will phase out its underground mine near Green River over the next two years in favor of solution mining, and that it plans to step up work on developing the same kind of mine-free operation China uses.
WE Soda’s Wyoming workers are represented by the United Steelworkers union. Local 13214 President Marshal Cummings told Cowboy State Daily that the Wednesday announcement is a devastating blow for the workers.
“I knew the market conditions were tough, but shutting down the dry mining was not on any of our radars at all,” Cummings said. “That’s why it feels almost like a sucker punch.”
‘Earth-Shattering Moment’
Cummings said that the union’s executive board met with company representatives at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, 90 minutesbefore the company announced the shift publicly.
That short notice, Cummings said, leaves the union with little clarity and a lot of questions.
"If we had these answers for our membership, it would be easier to have these conversations,” Cummings said. “Right now, finding this out today, you don’t know if you’re going to have a job or how you’re going to explain to your wife that your special-needs kid doesn’t have insurance.”
Cummings said his most immediate concern is for the members who are still on shift Wednesday, working as they process the news.
“As they’re out there working today, I hope we can keep our mind on our safety,” Cummings said. “I know this is an earth-shattering moment.
"These guys are going to be wrestling some tough decisions while they’re out here doing this high-intensity labor job.”
Cummings said his next focus is the upcoming bargaining with the company over severance, where he plans to fight for the best deal possible for union members.
“Our members are always going to be our top priority,” Cummings said. “So the next step is to ease the burden to the membership that’s affected, because you’re losing a third of your workforce.”
Cummings said he is unhappy with how the company handled the shift to solution mining.
The national Steelworkers union has sway over legislation in Washington, D.C., he said, and he would have liked the company to explore that route first in hopes of protecting jobs.
“I asked them to try to handle this tough time that way,” Cummings said. “I’ll bulldog for you if its helping my membership that we’ve represented for a long time. I’ll make trips to D.C. and try to help us make it through this tough time.”
Cummings said that approach could have helped protect the entire soda ash industry in southwest Wyoming, not just WE Soda.
Instead, he said he now has to turn his energy to looking out for the workers who have given much of their lives to the job.
“Instead of going to college, you go to the college of underground mining,” Cummings said. “Now, all of those people who spent their time learning to be underground miners have to find a new course. That’s what I can’t get over.”
Gordon, Barlow React
Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon and Governor-elect Eric Barlow reacted to the WE Soda announcement Wednesday in a joint statement.
“Soda ash mining is a vital, legacy industry for Sweetwater County and Wyoming,” they said in the statement. "Today’s announcement regarding the reduction in miners is terrible news for this cornerstone industry.”
They pointed out the critical role the mine and its jobs play in Sweetwater County’s economy, and offered sympathy for the workers.
"As Governor and Governor-elect, we are especially concerned for the miners and their families in southwestern Wyoming and are working diligently to bring resources to address the impacts of these reductions,” the said.
While understanding the pressures the low-cost Chinese soda ash operations and putting on the company, Gordon and Barlow said efforts need to be made at the state and federal levels to “immediately … strengthen Wyoming’s competitiveness and protect national security.”
They add that Wyoming officials are “in discussions with the federal government, producers, utilities, workforce services, transportation stakeholders, and others to look at all options for strengthening the market for this critical material.”
Cuts Begin In 2027
In Wednesday’s announcement, the company said it will work with the union to offer workers other roles within the business wherever possible, with the aim of keeping job losses as low as it can.
WE Soda Director of Government Affairs Craig Rood told Cowboy State Daily in a Wednesday email that the company can’t yet say how many workers will be offered reassignment.
When Warren spoke with Cowboy State Daily in September, he said the company had made only small headcount cutsafter buying the Westvaco facility and had focused on driving down its costs instead.
That has now shifted, and in its release the company acknowledged the toll the cuts will take.
“We recognize how difficult this announcement is for our employees and their families that are affected,” Warren said in the Wednesday statement. “We will support them throughout the transition period and we will work closely with the union, the local communities, and the State of Wyoming to support everyone affected.”
WE Soda said the workforce reductions will begin in the first quarter of 2027 and continue in stages through 2028, taking the Wyoming operation from more than 850 roles to about 500.
The company has said 2027 will be a year of transition, with lower volumes and one-time restructuring costs. It plans to share more when it reports third quarter results at the end of the month.
For the union, the details will come at the bargaining table, which Cummings said the two sides have yet to fully enter. Until then, he said, workers are left to go home and break the news to their families.
Emma Jane Jackson can be reached at emma@cowboystatedaily.com.
