(All dollar values are CDN)
Patience Lake
Operations
Mining depth – solution mine at 1000 meters
Annual capacity – 1.0 million tonnes KCl
Products – white standard, lawn and garden, and granular-grade potash
Performance
Significant Events
- Work continued on the expansion project to bring back idled capacity; many on-site service providers were accommodated, and additional resources were assigned to monitor safety.
- Reached one year without a recordable injury in June 2008 and four years with no lost-time injuries in December.
- Experienced a 14-week strike, and employees returned to work after a new collective agreement was approved in November.
Community Donations
- Donated cash totaling $30,502 to local organizations in 2008. The main recipients were: Sunset Estates volunteer fire department, Saskatoon Food Bank, restoration of a 100-year old heritage building, Reflections of Nature, and SRC Master National.
Awards
- Received the Saskatchewan Mining Association Safety Award for achieving a zero injury rating.
- Patience Lake Emergency Response team was the overall Surface Provincial Mine Rescue Champion in 2008 for the fourth consecutive year.
Local Procurement
- Made local purchases in 2008 of goods, materials and services totaling $14.5 million, or 68 percent of all expenditures (excluding major expansions, raw materials, energy and transportation).
| 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | |
| Annual Production (000 tonnes KCl) | 239.1 | 251.0 | 190.1 | 257.0 | 282.0 |
| Employment | |||||
| # of employees | 67 | 68 | 67 | 70 | 75 |
| # of female employees | 4 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 6 |
| Gender ratio (% female/total employees) | 5.9 | 5.8 | 7.5 | 8.6 | 8.0 |
| Average tenure (years) | 20.3 | 21.3 | 20.1 | 17.9 | 17.5 |
| Absenteeism rate (% hours absent) | 4.1 | 5.2 | 3.0 | 3.9 | 5.5 |
| Employee training provided (hrs per employee) | 30 | 40 | 53 | 112 | 92 |
| Safety Performance | |||||
| Lost-time frequency (per 200,000 hrs) | 1.76 | – | – | – | – |
| Recordable frequency (per 200,000 hrs) | 8.8 | 5.0 | 3.7 | 3.2 | 3.5 |
| Greenhouse Gas Emissions | |||||
| GHG emissions (000 tonnes) | 35.9 | 35.1 | 33.7 | 36.7 | 28.2 |
| Normalized GHGs (GHGs/tonne production) | 0.15 | 0.15 | 0.18 | 0.14 | 0.10 |
| NPRI Air Pollutants (tonnes) | |||||
| Nitrogen oxides | 36.2 | 36.4 | 35.1 | 38.4 | 30.2 |
| Carbon monoxide | 26.3 | 26.0 | 25.0 | 26.9 | 20.7 |
| Particulates (dust) | 306.0 | 214.1 | 181.3 | 202.6 | 176.2 |
| Volatile organic compounds | 2.0 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 1.7 | 1.3 |
| Waste to Land (000 tonnes) | |||||
| Waste salt to storage | 39.7 | 69.9 | 18.1 | 36.7 | 47.7 |
| Waste salt and clay to mine | 127.9 | 124.7 | 159.8 | 263.0 | 257.4 |
| Water Use (000 m3) | |||||
| Water withdrawn | 1,082 | 761 | 309 | 457 | 425 |
| Environmental Expenditures ($ 000) | |||||
| Operating expenditures | 1,207 | 535 | 290 | 542 | 598 |
| Capital expenditures | 451 | 1,503 | 817 | 3,476 | 3,865 |
| Energy | |||||
| Energy costs ($ million) | 7.2 | 8.5 | 7.6 | 7.6 | 7.2 |
| Energy use (TJ) | 860 | 844 | 803 | 884 | 720 |
| Energy efficiency (GJ/tonne production) | 3.6 | 3.4 | 4.2 | 3.4 | 2.6 |
| Procurement | |||||
| Local purchasing ($ million) | 2.5 | 3.1 | 3.7 | 5.9 | 14.5 |
| Source: PotashCorp | |||||
