K+S to invest $60M in Ojibway Salt Mine in Windsor, Ont.

The Ontario salt mine will expand to a new level 400 feet below the mine’s current depth. K+S mine in Bernburg, Germany pictured. PHOTO: K+S

WINDSOR, Ont.—Global fertilizer and salt producer K+S Group is launching a major expansion project at a nearly 60-year-old salt mine in Windsor, Ont.

Looking ahead to the next half-century, K+S Windsor Salt Ltd. has announced it will invest $60 million to expand operations at its Ojibway mine to the next mining level—about 400 below than the vast complex’s current depth.

“This is one of the most significant developments in the mine’s history,” Mike Soave, manager of the Ojibway salt mine, said. “As a long-time employer and member of the Windsor community, we are very pleased to have the support of our company and the local union to drive this important expansion forward.”

Along with beginning work on the next tier of the mine, Windsor Salt said the undertaking will also include mining method and equipment upgrades.

K+S said the project will allow the Ojibway facility to continue producing salt until 2063—stretching the mine’s total lifespan beyond a century. The original mine opened in 1959 and has continued producing consumer salt, rock salt used on Canadian roads, as well as salt for a variety of other purposes, through several changes in ownership. Today, the mine can produce as much as three million metric tons of salt each year.

K+S said the project is now in the final stages of engineering and design.

The company expects to begin extracting salt from the next level of the mine in 2017 and ramp up to full production through 2018.