K+S Potash Canada finalising it's Legacy project

Construction on the first potash mine in Sakatchewan, Canada in 40 years, is close to completion – with an end of year completion date.

The K+S Potash Canada Legacy mine, near Bethune, is projected to produce up to two million tonnes by the end of 2017. The mine will look to provide a work force of up to 300 permanent jobs at the start of production.

More than 100 Legacy site tradespeople and operators are undergoing intensive training on-site and at sister operations in Europe, where they’re training with equipment and systems similar to those they’ll be working with when the mine reaches start up.

Sam Farris, Vice President and General Manager of Operations at KSPC, acknowledges that the project is on time, but there is still a lot to do before reaching start-up date.

“We’ve been doing a lot of commissioning planning – organizational planning – to fine tune our structure and specify who’s doing what,’’

“There are many details to work out and a lot of things that have to come together at this stage.’’

This commissioning involves extensive equipment testing with the support of European business unit experts, who will help bring more Legacy plant systems on-stream.

“We’re on course to commission the plant this summer and produce the first tonne by the end of 2016,” says Farris.

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