A weird fact:

I had never even thought about this but baking soda (as in Arm and Hammer) is mined out of the ground in Wyoming. From there baking soda is made in a process that is highly reminiscent of making cement, and if it was fired hotter I think you could actually make cement out of it. How does this affect your life? It really doesn’t, I have just never considered where baking soda comes from; I guess I just took it for granted. So, now I can think of three baking ingredients that are mined, soda, salt and alum (discounting certain food dyes), and all the rest are grown.
A miner once told me that "all we have that isn’t grown, is mined”. He was a wise man. Now I am off to seek my fortune by prospecting for big soda strike!