source: Farm and Food Report
One can hardly drive through Esterhazy without noticing the importance of the potash industry in the region. There is the statue of Potash Pete the Miner and the potash mines that stand out in the prairie landscape.
Potash has played an important role in the local economy for many years, and now a committee made up of Saskatchewan residents would like to build a place where the significance of potash will be presented in an accessible way to area visitors. Former mayor John Nightingale chairs the committee.
"We want the Centre to represent the entire industry in the province. Ninety-five per cent of the potash produced in Canada comes from our region. Saskatchewan is the largest potash producer in the world, generating thousands of jobs. We thought there was a need to better communicate to the public how potash is extracted and used. This is what our interpretive centre will achieve."
The committee recently commissioned Beauchesne & Company, a successful Regina exhibit design firm, to come up with a concept for the centre that will really take future guests to the heart of potash mining operations.
Nightingale himself is a former V.P. and General Manager of an IMC (now Mosaic) mine. A mechanical engineer by trade, he has worked all his life in mines.
"Potash mines are fascinating places, as deep as 3,100 feet below the ground. Miners go down the shaft in a cage on a trip that takes around three minutes. They travel underground in specially adapted trucks -- pickup trucks without cabs -- for 30 to 45 minutes to the mining location. There are hundreds of miles of tunnels underground. The environment is quite warm, between 78 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Miners certainly don't need extra clothes."
The mine itself is made up of tunnels of varying widths, eight to 10 feet high. There are underground dining areas 10 to 20 feet wide, with microwave ovens and coffee pots. There are also fully autonomous equipment maintenance shops that can be 50 feet wide by 300 feet long.
"The machines bore through the rock continuously, and only 50 per cent of the available ore is extracted in order to leave pillars in the ground that will hold up the rock above. There is a complex process involved in extracting the actual potash, as the ore contains 20 to 27 per cent KCl, which is the potash mineral itself. The rest is halite -- regular table salt."
The Esterhazy Potash Interpretive Centre Committee wishes to really make the Centre as engaging as possible for all kinds of visitors.
"We can't take guests below the ground, but we certainly can make them feel what it is like to work in this kind of environment. They will be able to enter a cage in which we will simulate the airflow in the shaft and the vibrations of the journey below the ground. Air quality is always a priority. Not only that, but we also plan to design interactive activities and displays that will interpret the milling process, the benefits of potash uses in agriculture -- how it contributes to plant growth."
Nightingale and his fellow committee members aim to build the Centre in association with the 15-acre Esterhazy Historical Park, where there is already an outdoor display of some of the equipment used in potash mining operations, including a sheave wheel (a large pulley used in ore extraction) and an actual mining machine.
"We have high hopes that this interpretive centre will be as great as anything else in other places where mining heritage is interpreted to the public around the world," according to Nightingale, who wishes to share with guests some of the culture that potash mining has engendered in Saskatchewan -- a culture that will keep on shaping community outlook, he hopes, for years to come.
For more information, contact:
John Nightingale
Potash Interpretive Centre Committee
(306) 745-6188
One can hardly drive through Esterhazy without noticing the importance of the potash industry in the region. There is the statue of Potash Pete the Miner and the potash mines that stand out in the prairie landscape.
Potash has played an important role in the local economy for many years, and now a committee made up of Saskatchewan residents would like to build a place where the significance of potash will be presented in an accessible way to area visitors. Former mayor John Nightingale chairs the committee.
"We want the Centre to represent the entire industry in the province. Ninety-five per cent of the potash produced in Canada comes from our region. Saskatchewan is the largest potash producer in the world, generating thousands of jobs. We thought there was a need to better communicate to the public how potash is extracted and used. This is what our interpretive centre will achieve."
The committee recently commissioned Beauchesne & Company, a successful Regina exhibit design firm, to come up with a concept for the centre that will really take future guests to the heart of potash mining operations.
Nightingale himself is a former V.P. and General Manager of an IMC (now Mosaic) mine. A mechanical engineer by trade, he has worked all his life in mines.
"Potash mines are fascinating places, as deep as 3,100 feet below the ground. Miners go down the shaft in a cage on a trip that takes around three minutes. They travel underground in specially adapted trucks -- pickup trucks without cabs -- for 30 to 45 minutes to the mining location. There are hundreds of miles of tunnels underground. The environment is quite warm, between 78 and 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Miners certainly don't need extra clothes."
The mine itself is made up of tunnels of varying widths, eight to 10 feet high. There are underground dining areas 10 to 20 feet wide, with microwave ovens and coffee pots. There are also fully autonomous equipment maintenance shops that can be 50 feet wide by 300 feet long.
"The machines bore through the rock continuously, and only 50 per cent of the available ore is extracted in order to leave pillars in the ground that will hold up the rock above. There is a complex process involved in extracting the actual potash, as the ore contains 20 to 27 per cent KCl, which is the potash mineral itself. The rest is halite -- regular table salt."
The Esterhazy Potash Interpretive Centre Committee wishes to really make the Centre as engaging as possible for all kinds of visitors.
"We can't take guests below the ground, but we certainly can make them feel what it is like to work in this kind of environment. They will be able to enter a cage in which we will simulate the airflow in the shaft and the vibrations of the journey below the ground. Air quality is always a priority. Not only that, but we also plan to design interactive activities and displays that will interpret the milling process, the benefits of potash uses in agriculture -- how it contributes to plant growth."
Nightingale and his fellow committee members aim to build the Centre in association with the 15-acre Esterhazy Historical Park, where there is already an outdoor display of some of the equipment used in potash mining operations, including a sheave wheel (a large pulley used in ore extraction) and an actual mining machine.
"We have high hopes that this interpretive centre will be as great as anything else in other places where mining heritage is interpreted to the public around the world," according to Nightingale, who wishes to share with guests some of the culture that potash mining has engendered in Saskatchewan -- a culture that will keep on shaping community outlook, he hopes, for years to come.
For more information, contact:
John Nightingale
Potash Interpretive Centre Committee
(306) 745-6188
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