SRC SETS THE GLOBAL STANDARD FOR POTASH ANALYSIS
Almost right from the outset, the Saskatchewan Research Council (SRC) has been working hand in shovel with the potash industry to help with every stage of research and development.
Like many other mining operations, there is a lot involved in, first, finding the potash, then extracting it safely, efficiently and in a cost-effective manner, and, finally, dealing with the by-products. The SRC has been involved with the potash industry almost from the first, says Craig Murray, SRC’s vice-president of mining and minerals. “We’ve been doing research in support of the potash industry for almost as long as SRC has been around,” he said.
The SRC was established by the Government of Saskatchewan in 1947 to provide applied research in support of the University of Saskatchewan. The council has “morphed” since then, says Murray, into a free-standing entity that conducts applied research for companies around the world. Now considered a global leader in potash research, its Minerals Business Unit designs and performs potash processing and metallurgical testing work for the industry. Interest has been such, in fact, that the Geoanalytical Laboratories were recently expanded to offer a Potash Exploration Package to offer a range of analyses of interest in the exploration for potash.
The SRC labs offer all stages of testing, from preliminary, detailed and pilot plant testing, to tailings characterization. “We do work right at the front end on the exploration side and also in the milling and processing and the extraction, as well,” he said. There are other labs that perform similar work, but Murray says they don’t provide that full range of services. He says the SRC’s geoanalytical facility is the “go-to lab not only in Canada, but around the world in terms of potash assay work. We’ve really developed the standards by which all other labs are compared, but also the actual chemical and physical standards that others use in their tests.”
As part of its research, the lab contains model-sized versions of almost all the equipment that is used in a mine or mill. “We have teeny tiny lab-scale versions of [processing] equipment. We also have a mineral processing pilot plant. We can’t do things as big as they do in a mine of course, but we can test them,” Murray said.
SRC will also build other specialized equipment to support specific research, such as test cells to assess potash. “We put a large pillar of potash in that device and put it under pressure and monitored it to determine the properties,” he said. Checking for the “looseness” of the potash to help determine its strength will help ensure it won’t crumble or collapse. “We also do some instrumentation work for them, whether it be loose detection again as it relates to the safety underground,” he says.
While very specialized equipment is often used, Murray says SRC also works with potash mines on less scientific-based research such as the rate at which mining equipment operates. “We work with all the technological tools available, down to something as straightforward as the progression of a mining machine underground, which is still sometimes a challenge,” he said. Increasingly, he says, the research stays above ground. “We’ve also done a fair bit of work on when it comes to the surface side. That’s where we’re seeing more work come all the time, in helping them with the milling and the processing.”
While the world has changed significantly since 1947, especially in terms of computerization, potash research hasn’t changed a lot. “There are always technological changes, but they have been mainly subtle,” he said. “We’re not dealing with beakers anymore.” But, with the range of equipment and expertise available at the SRC, only the Muppet’s Swedish chef might be disappointed.