General Delivery, Allan, Saskatchewan S0K 0C0 | (306) 257-3312
Stewart Brown, General Manager | E-mail Stewart

Allan Fact Sheet (PDF 685 KB)

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Operations

Allan mines potash at a depth of 1,040 meters, producing granular, standard and industrial grade for agricultural and industrial use. Its annual capacity is 1.9 million tonnes KCl.

Significant Events

A debottlenecking and compaction expansion project was completed at Allan in 2007 which added 400,000 tonnes of capacity at a cost of CDN $210.0 million.

A significant challenge for the division in 2007 was the need to hire and train new employees to meet increased production requirements and to replace experienced employees who were changing jobs or retiring.

Through the continued implementation of BAPP® and other in-house safety programs, Allan was able to reduce its recordable frequency to 1.77 in 2007, the lowest among the potash division.

With the completion of the debottlenecking project in 2007, a number of daily, monthly and annual production records were set. Total production for 2007 was a record 1,743,856 tonnes.

Allan division hosted an underground tour for Rick Mercer from CBC's "Mercer Report" that was televised nationally.

Awards and Recognition

PotashCorp Allan underground emergency response team was the Overall Underground Winner at the Provincial Emergency Response competition in June, and its surface emergency response team was the Overall Winner at the PotashCorp Fire Fighters' Rodeo in September.

The site shared the Campaign Chair's Choice Award for the best overall performance by a workplace campaign for the 2007 campaign of the United Way of Saskatoon and Area.

Community Relations

Administrators and councilors from the Rural Municipality of Blucher and the Town of Allan were invited to the plant in November for a site tour along with an update on operations. Issues discussed included progress on the plant debottlenecking project, upcoming projects in 2008 (i.e. the product loadout upgrade and tailing management area changes), and the request from SaskTel for land to build a new cell tower.

Educational Initiatives

In 2007, the site provided a number of scholarships to local students in the community. These included:

• 1 corporate scholarship
• 2 divisional scholarships
• 1 local scholarship award at the Allan Composite School for the Grade 12 student with the highest average in the sciences

Community Donations

The joint United Way campaign with the union raised $32,430 in 2007, more than double the 2006 total. Also, $14,755 was donated to other charitable organizations, in addition to the $14,043 contributed as part of the Corporate Matching Gift Program. The main recipients of the division's donations were Allan Community Heritage Society and Museum, Allan Composite School, Allan Senior Flames Hockey Club, Allan and District Communiplex and Ducks Unlimited.

In 2007, in-kind contributions to local community organizations totaled $4,750. Beneficiaries included Cosmo, Avonlea School, Osborne School, Secret Santa and various other schools, churches and sports teams in the area.

Environmental and Energy Initiatives

The Allan site sets an annual goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. In 2007, the goal was 0.0546 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per tonne of production. This was achieved, with actual emissions coming in at 0.0544.

Reducing the particulate emissions from the product dryers is another environmental goal. To this end, there was pilot scale testing of an alternate technology to scrub particulates from dryer exhaust stacks.

An environmental impact assessment study was conducted in 2007 on a facility for long-term storage of fine tailings. This will be submitted in early 2008 for approval. Planning began in 2007 to ensure long-term storage of the coarser salt tails.

Remediation is taking place in an area just north of the plant site known as the "Spoils Pile." The potash and salt contamination has been excavated and trucked to the tails management area. Once the contouring is completed, the area will be re-vegetated with grass.

Local Procurement

One of Allan's ongoing goals is to purchase 80 percent of supplies, materials and contract labor from within Saskatchewan. This goal was achieved in 2007. Local purchases totaled $34.4 million of all purchases excluding raw materials, electricity and transportation.

Performance Trends – Allan
	2004	2005	2006	2007
Annual Production (tonnes KCl)	1,344,000	1,430,700	992,300	1,743,900
Employment
# of employees	285	293	312	336
# of female employees	8	8	9	12
Gender ratio (% female/total employees)	3.0	2.7	2.9	3.6
Average tenure (years)	19.4	17.7	16.7	16.8
Absenteeism rate (% hours absent)	6.1	6.9	7.2	7.0
Employee training provided (hrs per employee)	110	103	33	81
Safety Performance
Lost-time frequency (per 200,000 hrs)	0	1.0	0.7	0
Recordable frequency (per 200,000 hrs)	3.6	8.8	3.8	1.8
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
GHG emissions (000 tonnes)	81.2	83.7	74.7	87.8
Normalized GHGs (GHGs/tonne production)	0.06	0.06	0.08	0.05
NPRI Air Pollutants (tonnes)
Nitrogen oxides	68.4	72.3	62.1	80.0
Carbon monoxide	58.5	62.4	53.3	68.9
Particulates (dust)	352.1	378.9	272.9	318.0
Volatile organic compounds	71.1	84.4	57.1	94.0
Waste to Land (000 tonnes)
Waste salt to storage	1,696	2,086	1,288	2,169
Clay waste	177	196	122	236
Salt in brine injection well	645	609	580	756
Water Use (000 m3)
Water withdrawn	1,669	1,753	1,673	1,689
Environmental Expenditures (CDN $ 000)
Operating expenditures	2,750	2,799	1,650	2,861
Capital expenditures	0	176	3,271	3,566
Energy
Energy costs (CDN $ million)	14.9	19.2	15.0	19.8
Energy use (TJ)	1,866	1,961	1,700	2,317
Energy efficiency (GJ/tonnes production)	1.39	1.37	1.71	1.33
Procurement
Local purchasing (CDN $ million)	20.2	26.9	20.9	34.4
Source: PotashCorp