SASKATOON — Having Nutrien’s pilot plant in the city, in a centralized location, is strategic for the company, as it allows the facility’s research operations to better support its potash mining operations across the province.
Pilot plant director Mark Buchinski, during a media event after a plant tour on Tuesday, May 26, said the facility supports six potash mining sites through innovation, collaboration and rapid response, adding that it plays a key role in improving production efficiency.
“One of the benefits of having this facility here in Saskatoon is that we have great geographic proximity to each of our operating sites. When there is an issue, we can get in a car and go out to the sites to see them, help support them and bring work back here if needed,” said Buchinski.
Nutrien has potash mining sites in Allan, Lanigan, Rocanville, Vanscoy, Cory and Patience Lake near Saskatoon. Cory is 27 kilometres west of Saskatoon, while Patience Lake is 27 minutes east of the city.
Buchinski, who started as a chemical engineering intern at the pilot plant in 2009, said the Saskatoon-based facility focuses on conducting research and testing technologies before they are introduced at active mining operations.
“This facility is focused on doing the innovation and research ahead of time before it actually needs to be installed at the sites,” said Buchinski, who previously worked at several of Nutrien’s potash mining sites, including Vanscoy, Cory and Lanigan.
“When the sites are ready to introduce new technology, we understand what the best available technology is and can implement that in a very sustainable, low-risk way. A large part of the work we do here is focused on improving the sites’ recovery.”
He added that improvements in flotation and crystallization performance have enabled operations to extract more usable potash from every tonne of ore mined underground, without increasing the amount mined.
“If we improve our flotation performance or crystallization performance, we’re actually making more potash with the same amount of ore. That creates significant efficiencies in the operation,” said Buchinski.
He said that while each mining site maintains analytical facilities, the pilot plant in the city has more advanced, specialized equipment for compiling data that all six sites can use, making it more practical to centralize innovation efforts.
Buchinski also highlighted the importance of collaboration across Nutrien’s potash operations, noting that the centralized structure enables successful practices developed at one site to be quickly shared company-wide.
“One part of the role this group helps build is taking the best practices and innovations from one site and bringing them to the other five potash assets that we have. We can all learn together from each other’s ideas, successes and failures,” he added.
He said that collaboration strengthens Nutrien’s capabilities in the potash mining industry, enabling innovation and improving the company's operational efficiency, with the six sites across the province working together for efficient production.
Pilot plant manager Courtney Rohachuk said their primary role is to support the company’s six mining sites by testing and optimizing processes without disrupting operations, adding that their facility allows teams to experiment with flotation systems, recovery methods and new technologies in a controlled environment, helping sites improve efficiency, reliability and product quality.
She said potash processing is highly specialized because flotation occurs in saturated brine rather than water, which requires the unique expertise the pilot plant provides, and she also highlighted the collaborative relationship between the pilot plant and the mining sites, as the pilot plant has a multidisciplinary staff composed of engineers, metallurgical technicians, welders and student interns.
