Mosaic closing two potash mine shafts in Esterhazy, reopening Colonsay mine

Two potash mine shafts in Saskatchewan are being closed immediately and one mine is being reopened.

The Mosaic Company announced Friday it was closing the K1 and K2 shafts at its Esterhazy facility.

They were to close eventually as the facility transitions its operations to K3, but the company said the timeline for the closure “has been accelerated by nine months due to a recent acceleration of brine inflows.”

However, Mosaic said it was to planning to reopen the potash mine at Colonsay and recall workers as soon as was practical. The reopening of that mine is expected to offset some of the lost production caused by the early closures of the K1 and K2 shafts.

“By March of 2022, the company’s annualized potash production could increase by two million tonnes from 2020 levels, as Esterhazy K3 ramps up to full capacity and Colonsay returns to service,” the company said in a media release.

From July until next March, the company expects its potash production to be reduced by approximately one million tonnes. By the middle of next year, the company anticipates its available annualized operational capacity will be 10.5 million tonnes.

“Mosaic has been managing inflows at Esterhazy since 1985, and has accelerated the development of the K3 shafts to allow for the ultimate closure of the K1 and K2 shafts,” Joc O’Rourke, Mosaic’s president and chief executive officer, said in the release.

“For the last decade, we’ve run scenarios that relate to the early closure of these shafts. As a result of that planning, we expect to end up in a stronger position than ever in 2022.”