FERTILIZER MINERALS
JUNE 2016 • E&MJ; 39 www.e-mj.com
facility at Port Moody, near Vancouver,
will also be ready for use. Legacy will add
around 2.9 million mt of annual capacity
to the company's existing 7 million mt.
Back in Germany, however, the compa-
ny's potash operations have been affected
by environmental constraints placed on
their saline wastewater disposal systems.
Since 2011, K+S has halved the volume
of wastewater at its Werra operations, and
is building a kainite crystallization and
fotation plant at Hattorf with the same
intention. Its stated aim is both to reduce
the salt burden on the environment and to
recover additional fertilizer feed material.
As for BHP Billiton, development of its
Jansen project in Saskatchewan con-
tinues, albeit at a slower pace than be-
fore. The company has allocated some
$200 million to the project this fnan-
cial year, $130 million less than in
2014–2015, with $2.6 billion having
been budgeted for surface work and shaft
construction. Recent analyst comment
has suggested a $14 billion bill to bring
the mine into production at a rate of some
8 million mt/y.
Potash: Other Moves
With Mosaic still on course to bring
the expansion to 6.3 million mt/y at
its Esterhazy mine on stream next year,
the company has cut production at
Colonsay. Its potash sales last year total-
led 7.9 million mt, with its potash opera-
tions working at just 70% of their
10.5-million-mt/y nameplate capacity
during the last quarter.
The response of the other main U.S.-
based potash producer, Intrepid, to weak
markets has been to stop potash produc-
tion from its East mine in New Mexico,
Due to come on stream later this year, K+S's Legacy solution mine in Saskatchewan will add around 2.9 million
mt/y of potash capacity.