Saskatchewan Mining

Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

JANSEN, SASK. — Meet the Herrenknecht, a borer drill the size of a blue whale that is tearing up the Saskatchewan landscape – and with it the economics of the mining industry’s new hot commodity.

Some 32 metres long and as wide as a small house, the custom-made piece of German engineering is embarking on a journey to a point one kilometre below the province’s grain fields. There it will strike prairie gold – potash.

Jansen is slated to be the world’s largest potash mine, twice the size of its closest rival. With a total estimated cost of some $14-billion, it’s a brazen bet by Australian mega-miner BHP Billiton Ltd. that the crop nutrient will be the world’s most important mined commodity for decades as farmers struggle to boost food production for a hungry planet.

Jansen promises to drive a momentous power shift in the global potash industry, dominated for decades by groups of producers, under fire as alleged cartels, that have controlled most of the world’s supply and enjoyed strong profits.

BHP is throwing down the gauntlet on that cozy arrangement. The world’s largest mining company says it will sell its potash independently of any rival marketing group, adding a weighty new competitor to the negotiating table when major consumers seek new supplies of the fertilizer.

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http://www.calgaryherald.com/index.html

Two of China’s largest state-owned energy giants – CNOOC and Sinopec – have expressed interest to the federal government about investing in Canada’s potash sector and fertilizer production, government documents obtained by Postmedia News show.

The documents also reveal the Conservative government was aware for the past year, well before the recent controversy over foreign investment rules and the takeover bid for Nexen, that CNOOC was interested in co-operating “with other oil majors in investments in Canada.”

China was also looking for “early completion” of the Northern Gateway oilsands pipeline between Alberta and the B.C. coast currently under review by a federal panel.

As the Conservative government finalizes a new policy framework on foreign investment – and considers CNOOC’s $15.1-billion takeover bid for Calgary-based petroleum producer Nexen – it has been doing so knowing that major Chinese national oil and gas companies have been looking to invest in potash and fertilizer processing as well.

The Harper government has already blocked an attempted hostile takeover of Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan by Australian mining giant BHP Billiton.

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http://ca.reuters.com/

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Potash Corp, the world’s No. 1 fertilizer maker, is ramping up efforts to buy Israel Chemicals Ltd, appealing directly to Israel’s prime minister to back a deal that would rank as the largest foreign takeover of an Israeli company.

Conglomerate Israel Corp, which owns a majority in ICL, said that Potash Chief Executive Bill Doyle has met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to push for a deal, while financial daily Calcalist said Netanyahu has instructed his staff and the finance ministry to examine it.

Potash Corp confirmed on Wednesday it has met with Israeli government officials, and Israel Corp said it was aware of the meetings.

“The company confirms it is aware that Canada’s Potash is in talks with various government agencies that included a meeting with the prime minister regarding examining the possibility of merging ICL with Potash,” Israel Corp said in a statement.

Israel Corp officials declined to comment further. The finance ministry said it had not received any formal request. Potash Corp already has a 13.84 percent stake in ICL, the world’s sixth-largest fertilizer producer. It made its initial investment in 1998.

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The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

ROCANVILLE, SASK. — Deep inside a mine, a fire is serious. Circulation systems keep air moving in a steady breeze, and smoke spreads fast. Light a cigarette in one part of the mine and it won’t be long before someone a kilometre away knows what you’re doing.

So, when the emergency system in Potash Corp.’s Rocanville mine activated alarm lights and bells just before 2 a.m. Tuesday, Jamie Johnson did not wait around. Mr. Johnson was lead hand on a three-man crew running a miner, the large machine that burrows through the earth. Flames had erupted 300 metres away in a large wooden cable reel, producing noxious smoke from plastic insulation burning on a 30-metre-long, six-centimetre-thick electrical cable.

He didn’t yet know that. He did know he had to act fast. This was only the second time he had experienced an emergency below ground in nine years.

Mr. Johnson grabbed the phone located on the miner and called the control room. He was told to move to a refuge station – number 13 in his case, or lucky 13 as he would later joke, when he and 19 other miners were brought to the surface 24 hours after their shifts started.

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http://www.thestarphoenix.com/index.html

After more than 16 hours trapped underground at the Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan mine in Rocanville, Darwyn Wirth admitted he was tired. And that he wanted a cold beer.

Wirth, a shift electrician with Potash-Corp from Churchbridge, was one of 15 miners brought to the surface at 6: 42 p.m. on Tuesday. His shift started just over a day earlier at 6: 30 p.m. on Monday. At 1: 56 a.m. Tuesday morning his normal work day was interrupted when a fire broke out in the mine.

Twenty-nine miners were midway through their 12-hour shift when the fire alarm sounded. Nine miners were immediately evacuated, however the remaining 20 men sought safety in four refuge shelters throughout the mine. At 8: 15 p.m., the remaining five miners were brought to the surface.

The area where the fire broke out was 15 kilometres from the main Rocanville site and the shaft where workers enter and exit the underground mine. Wirth was the first person to spot the fire. He said at no point was he worried and described the experience as being “delayed” rather than trapped.

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The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

NEAR, ROCANVILLE, SASK. and TORONTO – Darwyn Wirth was driving down a mine travelway a kilometre beneath the Saskatchewan prairie when he saw fire. It was, he said, “a fairly large ball of flame.” Something had gone wrong deep inside the mine workings at Potash Corp’s Rocanville mine.

Mr. Wirth, a shift electrician, knew it was more than he could handle with a fire extinguisher. He retreated to a phone, notified the control room and sought safety in a refuge station.

Almost exactly 24 hours after his shift began early Monday evening, he emerged from the shaft, after workers put out the underground flames – which had erupted from a trio of cable reels – unscathed, and with a story to tell.

“There was two other gentlemen in the refuge station with me. We basically just spent time talking to each other, and at one we were allowed to call our spouses, which was nice,” he said. Their discussion, he added, included “anything but fire.”

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http://www.thestarphoenix.com/index.html

Contrary to Premier Brad Wall’s spin, BHP Billiton’s decision to delay making a final go-ahead decision on the massive Jansen potash mine should not be somehow misconstrued as good news.
 
When the globe’s biggest mining company is suddenly struggling and putting on hold its decision to build a $13 billion mine in your jurisdiction, it’s anything but good news. If anything, the Billiton announcement adds credence to the notion that Saskatchewan’s eight-year boom might be done.
 
That said, Wall did provide a few compelling points as to why this isn’t necessarily the worst news. The premier’s Grant Devinesque optimism came in reaction to news emerging from Billiton’s six-month financial report, which showed a 58 per cent drop (or about $5.5 billion decline) in profits, largely due to weak prices for the copper, iron ore, coal, nickel, aluminum and natural gas it produces. As a result, the mining giant announced it was cancelling expansions to Australian iron ore and copper operations, pegged at a combined $50 billion, and would delay final approval of Jansen until next year, at the earliest.

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