Where can naturally occurring borax be found?

Answer 1

Turkey, California, other parts of the Southwestern US, Chile, Tibet, Romania are some places where natural borax is found. See link for more information.

This is a good beginning answer. In the United States borax was first discovered at Borax Lake in northern California. Then it was found in a dry lakebed at Salt Wells near Fallon, Nevada in 1859. For the next 30 years borax was scraped up from the surface of these dry lakebeds throughout Nevada at Columbus Marsh, Teels Marsh, Rhodes Marsh, Amargosa Valley and Death Valley. In 1890 underground deposits of borax were found known as Colemanite near Barstow in the Mojave Desert. From 1906-1925 underground mining moved to the mountains east of Death Valley. In 1925 borax was found near Kramer Junction near the town of Mojave and that deposit went to open pit mining in 1956. Today that pit is the largest open pit mine in the state of California and is the largest borax producing mine in the country. It is owned by Rio Tinto Borax and provides the borax to Dial Corp for the Twenty Mule Team Borax product. Please see the Gold Creek link below for more borax history and the film The Twenty Mule Team of Death Valley.

Answer 2

Naturally occurring borax can be found in evaporite deposits in arid regions such as California's Mojave Desert, near places like Death Valley. It is also found in other places worldwide, including Turkey, Tibet, and Chile.