Our growth plan includes two major projects related to power and energy upgrades: cogeneration (1) and power distribution (2) infrastructure. 

Our cogeneration facility will utilize two new gas turbines (paired with our existing unit) to generate the equivalent of our total power usage on site. The turbines also produce waste heat that will be directly integrated into our mining process. This facility improves process and resource use efficiency and sets us up well for potential future carbon-reducing technologies. 

Power Distribution infrastructure needs to be upgraded to meet the increased power demand as new projects and equipment come online. This project will include both improvements and additions to existing electrical facilities.

Non-process refers to required infrastructure that doesn’t process or refine product but is still needed to manage increased production at Bethune mine. 

The growth projects within non-process scope include expansion of our fertilizer storage warehouse (9) and fines storage (12) facilities; a new rail and mobile equipment maintenance shop; expansion of loadout infrastructure (10); and additional rail cars (11) to transport our product to market.

The dry process is solution mining includes various processes that dry the potash and form it according to product specification. To increase production at Bethune mine, we need to finish more product, which requires expanding our infrastructure to handle increased processing volume.

The growth projects within the dry process include compaction expansion (3) and the addition of another centrifuge and dryer (4). Compaction expansion is the single largest project in the Ramp-Up scope and is designed with scalability in mind to support continued production increase over the next decade. 

Both of these projects contribute to reducing bottlenecks and additional dry processing capacity.

The wet process in solution mining includes various processes that separate the product from the brine that’s been extracted from caverns in the wellfield. To increase production at Bethune mine, we need to process more brine, which means expanding our infrastructure to handle increased volume.

The growth projects within the wet process include adding a salt dissolution tank (6); adding a secondary mining injection (SMI) tank (5) and increasing pumping capacity (7); expanding our cooling ponds and building a new cooling pond pumphouse (14). These projects contribute to reducing bottlenecks and adding wet process capacity for both primary and secondary mining.