By Patrick Book

PotashCorp to keep two mines shut-down until March 31

Feb 27, 2012 | 2:38 PM

Potash companies still believe in the economic strength of the pink mineral, but that isn’t stopping PotashCorp from keeping two of it’s mines closed until the end of March.

Bill Johnson with PotashCorp said sales haven’t picked up the pace as expected which is why the company is keeping the Rocanville and Lanigan mines closed for production until March 31.

“We’ve always had a policy of matching our production to market demand and right now market demand is a little soft,” Johnson said.

He insisted that stopping production at the mines is absolutely a temporary measure because the fundamental economics of farming – and therefore the need for fertilizer remains strong.

More than 600 employees work at the two mines but no one will be laid off during the shut-downs because there is other work they can do.

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“We’ve got a $2.8 billion expansion going on out at Rocanville and with that comes an awful lot of activity that our folks can stay busy with,” Johnson explained.

The Lanigan mine has been shut down since Jan. 8 and with the extension Rocanville mine will have halted production for a total of 14 weeks. PotashCorp began slowing down output for potash late last year as part of a strategy to match production with demand.

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