Colonsay to come up; Lanigan shutdown deferred

Saskatchewan — Workers at two Saskatchewan potash mines received some good news over the holidays. The Mosaic Co. called back some 330 workers for its Colonsay mine in December, with the mine expected to return to production in mid-January. The mine was idled in July 2016, and the workers received layoff notices (GM July 15, 2016); however, expectations at the time were that the shutdown would only be for the rest of the year. “We expect supply reconciliation and demand growth will result in a productive operating environment and are optimistic that 2017 will be a stronger year for the potash industry,” a Mosaic spokesperson told Green Markets Jan. 5. “Our philosophy is always to match supply with our customers’ demand.” The Colonsay mine’s proven production capacity is put at 2.6 million mt/y. On Dec. 23, Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc. announced that it would defer a planned six-week shutdown of its Lanigan Mine to the summer in order to manage inventories. The company said the Lanigan downtime will now probably happen as part of the annual maintenance shutdown in the summer or at some other time. PotashCorp said the planned 12-week shutdown at the Allan Mine beginning in February will proceed as planned (GM Nov. 23, 2016). PotashCorp is also cutting 140 jobs at the Cory Mine.