Jutting 374 feet into the sky, the monstrous concrete headframe of Mosaic鈥檚 K3 mine is not just the tallest structure between Winnipeg and Calgary, but represents 50 more years of prosperity for the town of Esterhazy, approximately one-hour south of Yorkton.
In 2012, the company celebrated 50 years of potash mining in Esterhazy with the beginning shaft development for the K3 expansion. On May 3, five years and $6 billion later, Mosaic put up a big tent at the Potash Interpretive Centre in downtown Esterhazy and celebrated 鈥淭he Next 50.鈥�
鈥淔rom a milestone perspective, this really is the symbolic start of the next 50 years,鈥� said Joc O鈥橰ourke, Mosaic president and CEO. 鈥淲e were the first big production shaft in Saskatchewan and we鈥檙e the first big new next generation production shaft. And others will have to follow, we鈥檒l probably have more shafts to follow, but this is an important first.鈥�
To mark the occasion, Mosaic handed out grants of $50,000 each to Esterhazy High School, Langenburg Activity Centre and to support recreation facility improvements in the town of Churchbridge.
The company also presented Yorkton-Melville MP Cathay Wagantall, Melville-Saltcoats MLA Warren Kaeding and Esterhazy Mayor聽 Roy Spence.
Miners at the site, four kilometres east of Esterhazy, hit potash on February 16 at a depth of 3,350 feet. When mining activity reaches full production, K3 will be the largest potash mine in the world delivering 900,000 tonnes per year of capacity to Mosaic鈥檚 output.
At full capacity, Saskpower estimates the mine will consume 50 megawatt hours per year. By comparison the entire city of Yorkton uses 30 megawatts.
The company expects to be producing by the end of this year.
While mine development continues underground, the company is also working on an overland conveyor system that will take the ore 10 kilometres to the K1 and K2 milling facilities.
During his comments May 3, which focused on his company鈥檚 record of community involvement, O鈥橰ourke called K3 the 鈥渦ltimate mitigation鈥� of a 鈥渂rine inflow鈥� problem that has plagued K2 since at least 2007.
鈥淭he new K3 mine has a buffer of one mile so all the mining areas are at least buffered by one mile of solid ground between the old K1 and K2 shafts,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a completely new mining area with no links over to that area, so what will ultimately happen is K1 and K2 will wind down and the mining operations will move to K3.鈥�
Amidst all the positivity, Mosaic reported a first quarter loss of $1 million compared to $257 million in the first quarter of 2016.
鈥淥ur results do not yet reflect improving potash and phosphate market conditions we anticipate to benefit from for the remainder of the year,鈥� said O鈥橰ourke. 鈥淭his quarter we experienced several operational challenges which are now largely behind us. Our constructive outlook hasn鈥檛 changed and we expect to see stronger earnings in the remainder of 2017.鈥�
Those operational challenges included incident at K2 in which a skip鈥攁 large metal bucket used for lifting ore鈥攇ot caught up in the shaft shutting the mine down for several days.
