BHP Group Ltd, Melbourne, recently completed the excavation and lining of the two 1,000-meter deep shafts at its Jansen potash mine under development in Saskatchewan, according to a company statement, cited in a Bloomberg report.
BHP said the shafts are one of the most technically risky parts of developing a greenfield project like Jansen and their completion will significantly reduce the development risk, as cited by the report.
The mining major last month reported in its Operational Review for the quarter ended Sept. 30, 2022, the Jansen Stage 1 project was tracking to plan, and was 11% complete as at the end of September (GM Oct. 21, p. 32). When complete, Jansen Stage 1 will have capacity to produce 4.35 million mt/y of potassium chloride. First production is being targeted for calendar 2026.
As also previously reported, BHP has accelerated a study of Jansen Stage 2, which on completion would add another 4 million mt/y of production capacity.