Mosaic lays off 46 at Colonsay mine site

Potash miner Mosaic Company has announced the coming layoffs of 46 unionized workers from its mine at Colonsay, 65 kilometres southeast of Saskatoon.

The layoffs were caused by “current market conditions,” Sarah Fedorchuk, a spokeswoman for Mosaic in Regina, said Thursday.

Slow sales were flagged in a Sept. 21 market update issued by Mosaic, which said at the time that domestic and international crop nutrient markets had softened because of currency volatility, lower grain and oilseed prices, political and economic uncertainty and global equity market declines.

“WE’RE STARTING TO SEE THE BOTTOM OF THE POTASH INDUSTRY — I THINK WE’RE CLIMBING OUT OF THAT.” BILL BOYD

But Bill Boyd, Saskatchewan’s minister of the economy, said Thursday that Mosaic executives recently told him sales orders from the U.S. Midwest corn belt for autumn application are “much greater” than in the recent past.

“I think we’re starting to see the bottom of the potash industry — I think we’re climbing out of that.”

He added he expects Saskatchewan’s two other potash producers, Agrium and Potash Corp. are seeing similar trends, though Mosaic is probably the most active in selling to the U.S. Midwest.

Prices are not yet rising in response because there’s “a large pipeline of potash that has to be worked through,” he told reporters Thursday morning. “I think we’re working through part of that right now, but there are still some challenges in terms of offshore markets.”

Fedorchuk said the layoffs are effective Dec. 14. All are permanent and involve unionized production workers. That leaves about 500 workers at Mosaic’s Colonsay mine, she added.

Boyd said any layoffs “are unfortunate, to say the least,” adding it’s his understanding that severance packages will be available to the workers.

He conceded that provincial revenues will be impacted by low prices for both oil and potash, but added that agriculture, forestry, cattle and manufacturing are “picking up the slack.”

“I think the people of Saskatchewan understand a few things, and one of them is the commodity market: it goes up and, unfortunately, it goes down as well. People are used to that here in Saskatchewan.

“I think they’re also used to the fact that we have a diversified economy ... much more than we’d ever had.”