Borates fight the hidden hunger

In croplands around the world, micronutrient levels hold the key to improving the amount and quality of food being produced.

By John Player

In the latter part of the nineteenth century, pioneers of the borax industry endured many privations in their search for borate ores. One prospector, working in the arid region of California's Death Valley, applied a crude flame test to a rock sample – and struck white gold.

“She burns green, Rosie. By God, we're rich!” he exclaimed to his wife as he recognized the presence of boron.

Today, those words have significance far beyond the horizons of those early pioneers. Around the world, and particularly in countries such as China and India, boron is helping to fight “hidden hunger”, creating new wealth in terms of both the quality and yield of food crops.

Research into the chemistry of boron and its compounds has given rise to a spectrum of applications – from pottery glazes and flame retardants to laundry additives and wood preservatives, work that continues to this day.

Rio Tinto Borax, the world leader in borate supply and science, has been at the forefront of developing borates' potential in agronomy since the 1940s following the discovery that boron was among those elements that, in trace amounts, are essential to the metabolism and growth of plants.

There are some eight of these micronutrient elements – some familiar, some less so. Research has shown that being deprived of just one will severely affect the health of a plant.