The Madagi Soda Company manufactures soda ash at the Kenyan town of Magadi

Magadi, Kenya

Magadi, Kenya is a town in the Great Rift Valley at Lake Magadi, located southwest of Nairobi, in southern Kenya. Magadi is northeast of Lake Natron in Tanzania....

, which is in southwestern Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

. It is the largest manufacturer of soda ash in Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

. The company was founded in 1911 and mines trona

Trona

Trona ; Na3•2H2O is an evaporite mineral. It is mined as the primary source of sodium carbonate in the United States, where it has replaced the Solvay process used in most of the rest of the world for sodium carbonate production.- Etymology :The word "trona" comes to English by way of either...

 from Lake Magadi

Lake Magadi

Lake Magadi is the southernmost lake in the Kenya Rift Valley, lying in a catchment of faulted volcanic rocks, north of Tanzania's Lake Natron. During the dry season, it is 80% covered by soda and is well known for its wading birds, including flamingos....

, in the Rift Valley

Great Rift Valley

The Great Rift Valley is a name given in the late 19th century by British explorer John Walter Gregory to the continuous geographic trench, approximately in length, that runs from northern Syria in Southwest Asia to central Mozambique in South East Africa...

. Lake Magadi has one of the purest surface deposits of trona. The trona is converted by Magadi to soda ash, at a facility near the mining operations, and the soda ash is transported by rail to Mombasa

Mombasa

Mombasa is the second-largest city in Kenya. Lying next to the Indian Ocean, it has a major port and an international airport. The city also serves as the centre of the coastal tourism industry....

 for onward shipping.

Magadi is a subsidiary

Subsidiary

A subsidiary company, subsidiary, or daughter company is a company that is completely or partly owned and wholly controlled by another company that owns more than half of the subsidiary's stock. The subsidiary can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. In some cases it is a...

 of Brunner Mond

Brunner Mond

Tata Chemicals Europe is a UK-based chemicals company that is a subsidiary of Tata Chemicals Limited, itself a part of the India-based Tata Group...

, Imperial Chemical Industries

Imperial Chemical Industries

Imperial Chemical Industries was a British chemical company, taken over by AkzoNobel, a Dutch conglomerate, one of the largest chemical producers in the world. In its heyday, ICI was the largest manufacturing company in the British Empire, and commonly regarded as a "bellwether of the British...

, and of Tata Chemicals

Tata Chemicals

Tata Chemicals Ltd is a Tata Group Company based in Mumbai. The company is one of the largest chemical companies in India with significant operations in India and Africa.-Plant locations:*Mithapur *Babrala *Nanded...

, and is headquartered in Magadi, Kenya.

Transport

The company operates a railway

Rail transport

Rail transport is a means of conveyance of passengers and goods by way of wheeled vehicles running on rail tracks. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles merely run on a prepared surface, rail vehicles are also directionally guided by the tracks they run on...

 branchline linking with the main Kenyan Railway System

Kenya Railways Corporation

Kenya Railways Corporation , also Kenya Railways is the national railway of Kenya. Established in 1977, KR is a state corporation.- History :...

.