The Mosaic Company of Plymouth, Minnesota, has announced plans to close the Colonsay potash mine near the town of the same name. Layoff notices effective Sept. 10 went out to 359 employees and no suggestion of when the mine might reopen was made.
Mosaic blames the wet spring weather in North American for a steep decline in the use of agricultural fertilizers. The same weather is expected to reduce the tonnage of grain crops and increase their prices. To take advantage of the higher prices, Mosaic is accelerating the development of the K3 potash mine at Esterhazy.
The K3 mine has produced 400,000 tonnes of muriate of potash in the first half of 2019 at costs lower than Colonsay.
(This article first appeared in the Canadian Mining Journal)
