Temporary closure of PotashCorp’s Lanigan mine not rattling predicated boom in future exports
Two very different pictures of potash have emerged in the province recently.
First the Saskatchewan Trade and Export Partnership analysis of numbers from Statistics Canada shows the province’s exports, including potash, could double in the next decade, but then PotashCorp has announced it is again temporarily shutting down its Lanigan mine because potash demand is in a slump.
“We have a long standing history of matching our supply to market demand and right now there’s a little bit of inventory in the system and as a result we don’t need to produce fully,” said Bill Johnson, senior director of public affairs with PotashCorp.
An option of producing potash and banking it for future demand is difficult because of how it has to be stored.