LANIGAN — Nutrien announced it is planning to ramp up production of potash at its six mines.
On June 7, the company said it would increase production by around half a million tonnes in the second half of 2021. Two weeks later, on June 21, they said they’d increase production by around another half a million tonnes.
“As a result, we now expect to produce one million tonnes of incremental potash in 2021 compared to expectations earlier this year,” Nutrien said in a media release. “The majority of the increased production is expected to occur in the fourth quarter, with some of these additional tonnes expected to be sold in early 2022.”
Rob Jackson, Nutrien Lanigan’s general manager, said by email the Lanigan mine would be contributing a good portion of the additional potash.
“To safely produce potash, we’ll need more people,” he said. “We expect to add jobs across the [Nutrien potash mining] network, with about 20 new jobs at Lanigan.”
The move comes after Canada, the European Union, the United Kingdom and the United States announced new sanctions on Belarus, the third-largest source of potash in the world.
On June 21, the countries said they imposed the sanctions in response to Belarus’ forced landing of a commercial Ryanair flight between Greece and Lithuania on May 23. The Alexander Lukashenko government scrambled fighter jets to land the plane to arrest opposition activist Raman Pratasevich.
As well, competitor Mosaic announced June 4 that it would be immediately closing the K1 and K2 shafts at Esterhazy nine months earlier than originally planned due to flooding. Mosaic is planning to restart production at its Colonsay mine as a result.
“Our updated guidance for potash sales volumes in 2021 is 13.3 to 13.8 million tonnes, which would exceed our previous record high for annual sales volumes of 13 million tonnes set in 2018,” Nutrien said.
