CP-served Legacy mine opens in Saskatchewan

Written by Mischa Wanek-Libman, editor
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Canadian Pacific

Canadian Pacific joined K+S Potash Canada (KSPC) to celebrate the opening of the Legacy Project mine on May 2.

CP says the mine is the first of its kind built in Saskatchewan in more than 40 years, and the rail infrastructure built to serve it is the most significant engineering project undertaken by railroad since the mid-1980s.

“We are incredibly proud to have collaborated with K+S Potash Canada on this project and look forward to delivering their product to international markets for years to come,” said CP President and CEO Keith Creel. “Building 30 km (18.6 miles) of new rail through a rural area, including a river valley, is no easy feat and I want to congratulate all those who invested their time and energy in bringing this project to a successful conclusion.”

CP says the 18.6-mile route to the mine site was a geotechnical challenge as grading through the valley required the movement of 9.7 million cubic meters of earth. Adding to the scope of the project was the construction of a 137-meter (449-foot) bridge and 70-meter (229-foot) tunnel. The rail project featured nearly 50,000 crossties, 30.4 km (18.8 miles) of track, 4,500 metric tons of steel (plates, rail, bolts), 90,000 metric tons of ballast and thousands of hours of work.

“KSPC needed to ensure that transportation of product from our mine to our port facility would be both secure and competitive,” said Dr. Ulrich Lamp, president and CEO, KSPC. “When we signed the contract with Canadian Pacific in 2013, we knew we had found the perfect partner and strategic fit for those needs. We are so pleased to see the finished rail infrastructure.”

CP will primarily use unit trains to ship the potash products to KSPC’s handling and storage facility in Port Moody, B.C. then on to overseas market. These unit trains will be approximately a mile and a half long, consisting of 177 rail cars and four locomotives.

The mine will have marketable product by the end of Q2 2017 and will reach a production capacity of two million metric tons of potash by the end of 2017.

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