Whilst overseas during the period April to July, 1964, the writer visited, in addition to phosphate deposits, most of the major potash mines and a number of evaporated-salt, rock salt, brine and sulphur operations in North America, Europe and Israel, to study the occurrence, exploration and exploitation of what are, to Australia, most exotic mineral deposits. However, this may not always be so. There are generally no surface indications of highly soluble evaporate minerals and their discovery depends on drilling; thus, discovery is often largely a matter of chance. It is interesting to trace the history of discovery and exploitation of potash from 1861 to after World War 1, when Germany was the sole world source, until the present time. Though Searle’s Lake (California) was discovered in 1862 and was first exploited in 1873, fractional crystallization technology was insufficiently advanced to provide domestic U.S. needs. The situation was little changed by the discovery in 1912 during oil drilling operations of potash brines and non-commercial potash salts in West Texas. However, the discovery in 1925 of sylvite in oil well cuttings from the same basin in New Mexico led to intensive core drilling and to the establishment of a sound U.S. potash industry based at Carlsbad. Between the wars, Germany, France, USA and USSR emerged as the main sources of supply. In 1943 oil well drilling operations in the Esterhazy Basin in Saskatchewan (Canada) led to the discovery and production (in 1962) of what has now proved to be the largest potash deposit in the world. Drilling for oil has also located exploitable potash - bearing evaporate sequences near Moab (Utah), in north-eastern England, Spain, Poland and North Africa. The discovery and exploitation of sulphur, both as a caprook component of some of the salt domes of the Gulf of Mexico area and as a recovered product from sour natural gas in Alberta (Canada) and at Laoq (France), also resulted from the search for oil and gas. The various mines and plants visited and details of geological setting of the deposits are described, with some general data relating to occurrence.