Sussex Mine
Owner: Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan Inc
PotashCorp owns and operates a potash mine in Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada. Production at the Penobsquis mine started in 1986. The mine was acquired by PotashCorp in 1993.
Geologists inferred the existence of potash deposits in Atlantic Canada as early as 1840. It wasn't until the early 1970s that a jointly funded federal-provincial drill program made a landmark potash discovery near Sussex.
Potash is a general term covering several types of potassium salts, of which the most important is potassium chloride, the mineral sylvite. Potash is a nutrient essential for plant growth, and is a cornerstone of modern agricultural fertilizers. Roughly 95 per cent of world potash production goes into fertilizer, while the other five per cen is used in commercial and industrial products - everything from soap to television tubes.
Sussex/Penobsquis is an underground potash mine that employs high productivity cut-and-fill mining methods with the help of continuous miners. Potash is processed by crushing, flotation and crystallization methods. Over 95 percent of the product is shipped by rail to the company's potash terminal at the Port of Saint John for export. Canada is the world's leading producer and exporter of potash.
Mining & Operation
The potash mining horizons, which are between 400 to 700 meters (1,300 to 2,300 feet) below the surface, are located on the flank of an elongated salt structure.
Underground mining operations take place at a depth of between 400 and 700 meters.Two vertical, 600 m long, 5 m diameter, concrete-lined shafts access the salt dome. Twinned, parallel access drifts, established in salt below the potash ore zone, extend eastward from the shafts providing access, via cross-cuts, to the evaporite area where potash and salt deposits are located.
Stopes are developed both above and below the access drifts and can be several hundred metres long, varying from 24 m to 61 m wide and up to 6.7 m high.
The ore is cut by continuous mining machines utilizing a cut-and-fill mining method. This method allows for a high extraction ratio while providing excellent ground conditions. Where the deposit exceeds a width of 40 m, pillars are developed to assist in the support of progressively higher excavation.
The mined potash ore is transported by conveyor belt systems to a storage bin at the main shaft and hoisted 580 meters (1,900 feet) to the surface for processing.
The rock salt located in the core of the salt dome structure is also extracted by continuous mining machines using a multi-level room-and-pillar mining method. The mine produces about 600,000 tonnes per year.
P.O. Box 5039
Sussex, New Brunswick
Canada E4E 5L2
Phone: 506-432-8400
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