Mosaic looks ahead to another 50 years
With the press of a symbolic button at a milestone ceremony, the Mosaic Company looked back on the first 50 years in the potash industry in Saskatchewan with the K1 and K2 potash shafts, and ahead to the next 50 years with its new K3 shaft at the Esterhazy potash mine.
“This is really a symbolic start of the next 50 years,” said Joc O’Rourke, CEO and president of Mosaic. “We were the first big production shaft in Saskatchewan, and we are the next generation of production shaft, and others will have to follow.”
In Esterhazy on Wednesday, the company also marked a significant milestone with its K3 mine, which reached potash at a depth of 3,350 feet on Feb. 16, 2017. The K3 shaft is the first to be sunk in the province in 50 years, and includes the construction of the K3 headframe, the tallest structure between Winnipeg and Calgary. The headframe rises 380 feet above the ground, or 100 feet taller than Mosaic Tower in Regina. The K3 shaft will also make Esterhazy the largest underground potash mine in the world.
“Esterhazy will be, and will continue to be, the largest potash mine in the world,” O’Rourke said, adding that the scope of the project increased in 2012. “We expanded the scope of the project to include all the conveyors and surface infrastructure to make it fully functional and a very large potash mine.”
The $3.2-billion investment in the potash mine will increase the capacity of the mining operation to 21 million tonnes per year by 2024.
“The shafts and infrastructure are coming in together, but it will still be three to four years before we have a fully functional underground mine that is of the capacity of K1 and K2,” O’Rourke said. “In the next five or 10 years, K3 will take over all the production of K1 and K2.”
While the project employed hundreds in its construction, once K3 takes over production, the number of workers will remain similar to the number at the Esterhazy site today.
“A lot of the jobs, in seven or eight years, we expect a lot of the jobs at K1 and K2 will move across to K3,” O’Rourke said. “The capacity goes up slightly, but the number of people will be similar to what we have today.”
When asked about how the current price of potash — which is half what it was only five years ago — would impact the mine, O’Rourke stated that potash is a long-term investment.
“We are looking at a price today that might last a year or two,” he said. “We are looking at these projects with 10 years just to build. We are making a long-term investment for a world that will need a lot of fertilizer to grow the food that the world needs.”
The announcement of the milestone also came one day after the K+S Legacy Bethune Mine project officially opened with a ribbon cutting. O’Rourke stated that competition was good for the industry in Saskatchewan.
“We are more than happy to have competition,” O’Rourke said. “We believe in fair trade and free trade. I think K+S and their production will be needed over time. Over five or 10 years, that production will be needed and all of these productions are necessary for the future of potash.”
We were the first big production shaft in Saskatchewan, and we are the next generation of production shaft, and others will have to follow.