It all starts with an elevator shaft. Once enclosed in the metal box, it’s a slow rattling descent that soon quickens with a rush, the speed smoothing out the ride. The only signs that indicate you’re traveling more than a kilometre underground are the plugged ears and the sliver of an opening between the doors that shows the tunnel wall zooming past.
In recognition of Mining Week in Saskatchewan from May 24-30, PotashCorp Lanigan invited the media to attend a mining tour on May 21. Before even beginning the tour, we were given a disposable coverall, safety goggles, a hardhat, a face mask, earplugs, and a flashlight. On the frame of a medium-sized, 5’3” journalist, the coverall was about eight sizes too large and the goggles weren’t much better. The first part of the tour to the underground mines was led by senior mine technician, Neil Ebert.
The ride down in the elevator only took a few minutes, so it was easy to be fooled into thinking we weren’t going very far underground. A lesser woman might have balked at climbing into a metal cage with no light to descend a thousand meters below the surface, but it didn’t seem too bad. Once we got down there, however, we knew exactly where we were.
Once we stepped off the elevator, we were in a large cavernous space that looked kind like an underground garage. There were some very obvious differences though, such as the metal netting that seemed to hold the rock walls in place and the dirt floor. The ceiling seemed to be at least 30 feet high, so it was hard to imagine the tons of dirt, clay, and sediment resting above our heads (definitely not the greatest place for someone who’s claustrophobic). In fact, the first things you notice are a sawdust-like material covering the bench to the side and the mineral smell of the air blowing into your face. Every time you licked your lips, you could taste a slight tinge of salt.
You might be wondering how it was possible that there were gusts of air underground. We soon found out that was due to the extensive ventilation system that ran throughout the miles of mine shafts. Despite being extremely dry air, it’s feels like a springtime breeze in the 27 degree Celsius temperature down there. According to Ebert, that temperature stays the same year round.
After exiting the elevator, Ebert had us climb into a company jeep, where we drove about six miles from the shaft to the “number 25 borer.” He would point out things along the way, such as the cracks where the walls met the ceilings and the colour separations in the walls that denoted different layers such as salt, clay, or potash. The average rooms we were driving in were about 50 feet wide by 16 feet deep. The stress relief rooms (look it up; takes too long to explain) were about 30 feet wide and 12 feet deep.
“Lots of people don’t realize how much space there is and how large the mine is, how many miles you have to cover in your daily routine,” said Ebert.
“It’s a big mine. You have to drive far just to get to your work area.”
With all of the shafts leading in different directions, it’s hard to imagine how anyone can find their way down there. One thing is for certain: it’s entirely possible an inexperienced visitor could get lost down there. At one point, Ebert stopped the jeep and turned it off to illustrate how dark it really was. Ever been in a room completely devoid of light? There wasn’t a sliver of light or a glow anywhere to light up even your hand in front of your face.
In fact, it’s because of possible dangers like this that the company has refuge stations set up everywhere in the mine. Despite my summing up of this tour, there were many safety steps that had to be followed before we could go down there. For example, Ebert had to take three key chains with him to indicate that he and two visitors would be down there; he had to bring a breathing apparatus for each of us just in case, and he also made sure to tell us where we could find maps for the part of the mine we were going into. In fact, almost the entire tour could be described as a debriefing of safety policies the miners had to follow.
“It is dark and harsh conditions. The biggest challenge is safety and making sure the working area is safe,” said Ebert. “The operators check the ground conditions after every break. (The conditions) are always changing; that’s why they’re checking it frequently.”
Speaking of which, we’ve finally arrived at the most interesting part of the tour: the borer machine. It’s difficult to describe, but picture a machine with two rotating ‘Y’ plates covered in blunt spikes attached to the front. The two ‘Y’ plates rotate in sync and grind up the wall in front of it. The plates, by the way, seem to be about 10-12 feet tall.
The wall, which is a mixture of potash and ground sediment, is then churned out onto a moving conveyor belt attached behind the machine, which then transports the material hither and yonder, miles away to the mill. In a very, very small nutshell, that’s mining for potash.
At this point in the tour, I can’t emphasize enough how bad the dust was. The miners didn’t seem to need a mask (even I managed to get by without one), but there was salty dust everywhere. There wasn’t a single inch of anything beyond the elevator that wasn’t covered in dust, including the seats in the jeep.
After leaving the borer, we eventually drove back to the elevator shaft and left the underground mines. We were about to start the next phase of the tour: the mill, which was led by Mark Buchinski, a chief metallurgical engineer.
To sum it all up, the mill looks like one of the factories you’d see in movies like Terminator 2: Judgment Day. It had a dull orange lighting, it was fairly hot in there, and once again, there was dust covering everything. In fact, it almost looked like it had rained dust in there, even though Buchinski said they clean different parts of the mill daily. Some might wonder how anyone can work in those hot and dusty conditions, but I guess it’s one of those things people get used to.
“I guess no one ever really complains. They know it’s warm and dusty; it’s part of the work environment. It doesn’t bother you anymore when you’ve been around the dust for a while,” said Buchinski. “When I first started, I’d have a runny nose and be sticky everywhere, but you get used to it after a while.”
Buchinski took us through the entire process of cleaning potash to separating it from unwanted sediment to breaking it down to the proper size for customers. The tour was wrapped up with a visit to the storage warehouse where the potash was stored until it could be transported after sale. The facility was basically a gigantic structure with a hole at the top where the potash was just poured in by a giant pipe. It can hold thousands of tons of potash at a time.
“I think there’s a little bit of a misconception,” said Buchinski. “You don’t understand the magnitude of the operation until you go underground and see how big it is and how much it takes to turn ore into saleable product.”
