Watch above: A new potash company is looking for a location to start mining in Saskatchewan. Joel Senick introduces us to Gensource and finds out how this company is different than the major players already on the landscape.
SASKATOON – A Saskatoon-based company is hoping to take potash mining to a more compact level, with a unique project in the province. Gensource Potash Corporation CEO Mike Ferguson says the company hopes to develop a production site in the Craik, Sask. area.
He also says it will be much smaller than typical potash mines in Saskatchewan.
“We’re really looking at, for this initial facility, probably a quarter of the number of people as there are at a typical large conventional mine,” said Ferguson, from his home near Victoria, B.C.
The site would produce less potash as well; however, the project would be unique by preselling its entire production. Ferguson added a lot of work so far has been on the market side of business, connecting with buyers in China and Brazil.
“You have the market side involved in the project at the very early stages so that your product is essentially pre-sold,” said Ferguson.
MORE: Gensource Potash, China team up to develop projects in Saskatchewan
The project would also be unique in the way it extracts potash from the ground. Ferguson described their mining technique as “selective solution mining” which “uses significantly less fresh water, has reduced consumption of power and natural gas” compared to conventional solution mining.
Solution mining is when a brine is injected underground, allowing potash to dissolve in the water and is then returned to the surface where it is separated. Ferguson added that most potash mining in the province is done through a conventional approach, with a service shaft and workers underground.
“What we’re doing here is bringing what we see as up-to-date 21st century mining practices to the potash industry in Saskatchewan,” said Ferguson.
Gensource has been around for roughly two-and-a-half years and while they don’t expect to produce potash in 2015, Ferguson hopes all the studies around the project will be complete by the end of next year. Even though the site is expected to be much smaller than a conventional mine, the economic spin-off may still be felt in Saskatoon.
“There’s going to be no doubt an intense geological and engineering component to this project and a lot of that will gravitate into Saskatoon by way of service support,” said Kent Smith-Windsor, executive director of the Saskatoon Chamber of Commerce.
“In the longer term, about half of the economic activity that happens within our trading area gravitates back to Saskatoon in some way, shape or form.”
Smith-Windsor added that, in general, when urban centres’ surrounding communities thrive, so does the city.
“A stronger Craik, a stronger Hanley, a stronger Kenaston, a stronger Davidson, all the way through to Dundurn create significant economic benefit to Saskatoon,” said Smith-Windsor.
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