Manitoba's 1st potash mine readies for market debut
CBC
Manitoba's first potash mine is on the verge of having its product hit the market, and it's being touted as a "unique" project that will benefit the local community and First Nations.
The facility, located in Harrowby, is about 16 kilometres west of Russell near the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border. It entered pilot operations just over a year ago.
Daymon Guillas, president of Potash and Agri Development Corporation of Manitoba (PADCOM), which operates the facility, has been working on the project for nearly two decades and says production began earlier this month.
The mine is now in the final stage before white Manitoba potash can hit the market.
"Potash is one of the three [major ingredients] to have enough food to feed the people," helping make things like fertilizer, Guillas said.
"Without potash, nitrogen and phosphate, there will not be enough food on the planet."
Guillas says western Manitoba is on "the shore" of Canada's vast ocean of potash deposits. Saskatchewan has the biggest supply in the world, but he says they come about 10 kilometres into Manitoba.
The first phase of the mine will see it produce 100,000 tonnes of potash per year, growing to 250,000 in the second phase, he said.
Across the Manitoba-Saskatchewan border, the Nutrien potash mine near Rocanville, Sask., produces five to seven million tonnes per year, he said.
"In 36 hours, they produce more than we do in a year," said Guillas. "Saskatchewan is the Niagara Falls of potash in Canada. Our little project is a drip, just a small drip out of the faucet."
PADCOM CEO Brian Clifford says the mine uses a solution-mining technique to extract potash that is friendlier to the environment than the conventional method of boring the earth and extracting ore from rock deposits.
Solution mining involves injecting a heated mixture of water and salt underground to dissolve the potash deposits, before it is pumped to the surface and crystallized, he said.
The technique means that PADCOM's potash is white, and not the "pinkish" colour that people typically associate with the mineral, Clifford says.
"If you're not using solution mining, you're bringing up the salt to the surface as well, so one of our key mantras is to keep as much salt underground as we can," he said.