The potash and oil business are inexorably linked, as the potash business extensively uses oilwell drilling rigs in their operations.
This is doubly so for solution mining, and a new potash mine near Milestone has begun its production drilling. In solution mining, wells are used instead of mineshafts to access the ore body, and nobody goes underground.
Western Resources Corp. announced on July 16 that its wholly owned subsidiary, Western Potash Corp., has commenced its drilling program with Artisan Consulting and Akita Drilling at the company’s Milestone Phase I Potash Project located 35 kilometres southeast of Regina. The location is roughly 13 kilometres due south of Kronau, according to the location reported by Rig Locator.
The press release stated, “The Milestone Phase 1 Project will be the newest and most innovative, environmentally friendly and capital efficient new potash mine in Canada. By utilizing advanced horizontal drilling techniques, the project will be able to initially target the high-grade potash bed, then by using selective dissolution, preferentially leach the potash to the surface. This will be the first potash mine in the world that will leave no salt tailings on the surface, thereby significantly reducing water consumption.”
The drilling program will last approximately four months and will consist of six wells that connect to three caverns. Each cavern consists of an injection well under the potash bed, and connected withdrawal well which returns the brine back to the surface. After successful drilling and with appropriate regulatory approvals, the caverns will firstly start “cold mining” to enlarge the caverns and saturate the brine with salt in preparation for production, followed by “hot mining” that will recirculate brine into the caverns and preferentially extract the potassium chloride, resulting in the buildup of an inventory of potash in the crystal pond. By mid-2020 the process plant will be constructed and ready to harvest the inventory of potash in the pond. The plant will then de-brine, dry and compact the potash, which will be trucked to a nearby distribution centre.
Artisan Consulting Services Ltd. has been involved in numerous oil and gas as well as potash projects in Western Canada, the Northwest Territories and China. Western Resources said Artisan is known for providing specialized supervision services for the drilling of vertical, directional and horizontal wells within Western Canada.
The press release noted “Akita Drilling is one of the largest and most respected drilling service companies in Canada. Akita has over 40 drilling rigs in their North American inventory which includes use for drilling operations in Canada and the United States. Their extensive experience as well as a strong industry network proved to be a perfect partner for the Phase I Project and Western Potash Corp.”
Bill Xue, president and CEO of Western Resources, said, “Western Potash Corp. is very pleased to have reached this milestone on the project. Our strong project team enabled us to reach this milestone in line with our schedule. We are very confident that this project will lead to the world’s first selective solution potash mine that leaves no surface tailings in Saskatchewan.”
