Leonardite extraction occurring near La Ronge

“We are getting a lot of international inquires starting this winter. People are scrambling to find new sources and some of these buyers in Europe are really big buyers. This here is just to keep us going for now, so we could be back maybe next March, maybe next summer. It’s going to be ongoing.”

The seam is about four meters underground and it is being extracted using a dozer and a couple skid steers. There is currently five employees working at the site.

A map detailing the project site. The area highlighted in red is where extraction will occur in 2026. (Image Credit: Submitted photo/Raymond Potié)

Potié held a public engagement session earlier this week, which attracted about 40 people at La Ronge’s Jonas Roberts Memorial Community Centre. He noted most people who attended wanted to know how the leonardite will be trucked out, if it will impact local mushroom pickers, or they were simply interested in what the product is.

“Most people seemed to be on side, they like the economic activity,” Potié said.

“There’s a couple of people who wanted to know about the hauling aspect and having trucks go down those roads. One thing is what we’re using is a municipal road and then a logging road. There’s no active logging right now, but there was last year. There probably will be again this year, and then our own road that we built around 2005 from the logging road to our mine site. There’s people there who are mushroom picking and stuff. That was the main question people asked is what about the hauling and if it will interfere with whatever activities they’re doing. It’s going to be a lot less of a nuisance than logging trucks.”

The extraction of the leonardite will be done relatively quickly with bagging operations starting on Aug. 8.

derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

by Derek Cornet

Leonardite extraction occurring near La Ronge

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