VIDEO: Saskatchewan company aims to reshape potash mining

A Saskatchewan company believes the future of potash mining may not lie in reinventing the industry, but in borrowing a technology that has already transformed another one of the province’s biggest sectors.

Buffalo Potash has begun drilling the first wells for its initial production module near Disley, about 50 kilometres northwest of Regina. But instead of relying on the traditional, vertical wells used by Saskatchewan’s existing solution potash mines, the company plans to use patented horizontal drilling technology adapted from the oil and gas industry.

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Company officials said the approach could reduce the environmental footprint of potash mining, while allowing the company to avoid using fresh water during the extraction process.

“We had the idea, what if we took oilfield technology, horizontal wells, horizontal drilling, which Saskatchewan is a leader in, and applied that technology to solution mining potash?” said Steve Hallabura, Buffalo Potash’s co-founder, CEO and director.

“That would dramatically change how potash is mined in Saskatchewan.”

Hallabura said the idea grew from decades of experience in both Saskatchewan’s potash and oil industries.

“We had experience in horizontal wells in the oilfields, light oil, heavy oil, and we had the idea, well, what if we took that technology and applied it in Saskatchewan in the potash beds?” he said.

“That is the central idea of Buffalo – taking oilfield technology, adapting it to be used in the potash industry and, in doing so, disrupt the way potash is mined.”

Hallabura said the project is in a prime location.

“We’re nestled in between two of the world’s biggest potash solution mines, period, and I think that’s a good place to be,” he said. “We’re along Highway 11 where some of the richest potash beds in the province are.”

Rather than drilling vertically through the ore body, Buffalo Potash plans to drill horizontally through a potash seam, dissolving the mineral underground before bringing it to the surface for processing.

Buffalo Potash president and chief operating officer Quinton Hardage poses at the company’s drilling site near Disley as work begins on its first production wells. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)

Quinton Hardage, Buffalo Potash’s president and COO, said the technology builds on techniques already proven throughout Western Canada’s oilpatch.

“We’ve taken what we’ve learned from the oil and gas industry, and we’re reapplying it to the potash industry,” Hardage said.

“In the oil and gas industry, they use it for water flooding to recover oil out of the reservoir. In potash, we’re using that same technology to try and maximize the KCL production out of the potash deposit.”

Traditional solution mines use vertical wells and fresh water to create underground caverns before dissolving the potash, but Hardage said Buffalo’s process instead creates a rectangular mining plane using horizontal wells and naturally occurring brine.

“We don’t need to use fresh water to create our mining plane,” he said.

“We have a much smaller footprint, and we’re able to recover what we believe will be higher-grade potash solution out of the reservoir.”

The environmental benefits were a recurring theme throughout the company’s community open house, which saw local residents, investors and media tour the drilling site.

Hallabura said the company also doesn’t plan to create the large salt tailing piles commonly associated with potash operations.

“Our whole plan is to minimize the surface footprint,” he said.

“We don’t intend to create those big white piles of salt that you see at other potash mines. We don’t intend to use or deplete the surface water that’s required by communities and the ag sector.”

Hardage added that the company also plans to avoid large evaporation ponds typically found at conventional solution mines.

“We don’t need brine ponds on surface and we don’t store tailings on surface, so we’re able to really scale down our footprint utilizing horizontal wells and oil and gas technology,” he said.

Jared Galenzoski, Buffalo Potash’s chief geoscientist and technical specialist, stands at the company’s drilling site during the launch of its initial production module. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)

Jared Galenzoski, Buffalo Potash’s chief geoscientist and technical specialist, called the project a major step forward after nearly a decade of development.

“No one’s really looked at this portion of solution mining for decades,” he said.

“To be able to see it go from a benchtop study to an actual field practical study is a paradigm shift to the industry.”

Galenzoski said if the technology proves reliable and sustainable, it could become “a viable alternative to current methods in the industry.”

The company expects to finish drilling its vertical and horizontal wells by early October before beginning to circulate brine underground. Processing equipment is expected to arrive later this year, with Buffalo targeting first production from its 125,000-tonne-per-year initial production module by the end of the first quarter of 2027.

For Hallabura, the project is also personal.

“The province has been good to me,” he said.

“I spent 40 years as a consulting geologist. My whole career has been here in Saskatchewan. If I’ve got an opportunity to give back, I’m going to do that.”

Jordan Stewart, Buffalo Potash’s vice-president of business development, stands at the company’s drilling site near Disley, where Buffalo has begun testing its patented horizontal potash mining technology. (Jacob Bamhour/980 CJME)

Jordan Stewart, Buffalo Potash’s vice-president of business development, said having a prairie-based company behind the project is another point of pride.

“It’s not a story that’s fabricated by people who don’t know what they’re doing,” Stewart said.

“It’s a bunch of Saskatchewan professionals that understand potash.”

Stewart said Saskatchewan’s long history as a potash leader made it the natural place to develop the technology.

“Canada really is the leader in global potash, and that all stems from Saskatchewan,” he said. “We’re happy to be a part of that.”