GeoVenture 2024 Vloggers
Westmoreland Popular River Coal Mine, August 14th 2024 By: Charles Devon and Dan Griffith
GeoVenture 2018 Epic Song Battles
Day 3 Potash – Conventional Underground (Mosaic Esterhazy K1), August 21, 2018
By Melanie Charnetski, Violet Dubitz, and Lanna Abbott
A Mine Called K1
Now this is the story all about how,
We learned about mining underground.
We’d like to take a minute,
Just sit right down,
We’ll tell you how we became the queens of a mine called K1.
In Southeast Saskatchewan, born and praised,
In Esterhazy is where spent one full day.
Gearing up, maxin’, descending all cool,
Traversing the tunnels, gettin’ all schooled,
When a couple of guys, who were up to some good,
Took us on a tour of their neighbourhood.
We got in some good sights, and we weren’t even scared,
Brad said, “Take as many potash samples as you dare.”
We whistled for a ride, and when it came near,
We thought to ourselves, “What a career!”
If anything we could say this trip was rare,
And we thought, “Time for the mill, yo holmes, to the stairs!”
We arrived at the mill around 12:08,
And we learned about size and importance of grade.
They showed us their kingdom, our tour was done,
Thank you, best wishes to the mine called K1!
Day 3 Potash – Conventional Underground (Mosaic Esterhazy K2), August 21, 2018
By Michelle Peters and Mick Rissling
Esterhazy Rhapsody
Is this the real life?
Is this nerd fantasy?
Down in K2 mine,
3.3 x 103 feet from reality.
Open your eyes,
there are no skies to see.
I am just a poor teacher,
I need some good PD.
Because it’s easy come, easy go,
we’ll again be high but now we’re low.
The one way that the fans blow really, really matters to breathe.
To breathe.
Mosaic, protects a man.
Put a hard hat on his head,
Safety trained so he’s not dead.
Mosaic, K3 just begun,
To no longer have to throw water all away
Mosaic, oooooh
Still need to make it dry.
If I’m not up the shaft this time tomorrow
Come on down, come on down, I’ll be in the refuge.
Clocked in, time to descend
My ears poppin’ all the time.
Steel-toe boots caked with brine.
Good-bye everybody, I’ve got to go
Gotta leave surface behind and face the face.
Mama, ooo (there is no way the wind blows)
The pressure is real high,
I sometimes wish I’d never come down at all.
We see high-grade potash in the rock,
Dig it out, send it up, will you do the miners’ tango?
Blades spin as fast as lightning, with PPE it’s not frightening
Esterhazy, Esterhazy,
Esterhazy, Esterhazy,
Esterhazy Mosaic Co. Mosaic Co.!
It’s just a mixture, gotta separate it
it’s just a mixture, from the Elk Point Sea.
crystalline compounds, evaporation processes.
K-C-L , K-2-O, just let it go.
so-di-um – electrons let it go – let it go!
so-di-um – electrons let it go – let it go!
so-di-um – electrons let it go – let it go!
We will not let you go (never)
Never let you go let me go
Never let me go ooo
No, no, no, no, no, no, no
O chemistry-a differential density-a help-a-me-a let it go!
Flotation has aeration and ions for me.
For me
For me
So you think you can split me and sell me by size?
So you think you can dissolve me and leave me to dry?
Oh baby, I just need to be compacted, baby.
Just gotta get sold, just gotta get shipped outta here.
Ooh yeah, ooh yeah,
Potash really matters,
Botanists can see,
Potash really matters, to plant chemistry.
All the ways the food grows.
GeoVenture 2017 Poem
Coal –Todd Smith (17/08/2017)
Forests and hay, way back in the day,
Were flattened and pushed to the soil,
The silts then came,
To cover the fray,
And buried the mass without toil.
Deep down in the earth,
Covered with dirt,
The layers of plants were compacted,
And due to the heat,
And the pressure complete,
The whole mix of flora reacted.
The carbonized weeds,
Completed the deed,
And solidified in one black horizon
Then people came,
With pick axe and spade,
To dig up what they had laid eyes on.
Who would have supposed,
That what erosion exposed,
Would help a province to grow.
And no one suspected,
Until they detected,
The coal that lay under their toes.
The miners did toil,
And muscles roiled,
To pull the coal from the ground.
The dragline sang,
And metal rang,
With the sound of work all around.
Over the years,
There have been many cheers,
For the lignite from the South.
And the stories are told,
By the miners of old,
Passed down by word of mouth.
So celebrate coal,
For the new and the old,
Technologies we use today,
Carbon capture will show
What we all know,
That Coal is A-O.K.
2016 GeoVenture Poem
Potash Interpretive Centre
Potash Pete welcomes all,
In his red and blue standing so tall.
“Come in, come in, there’s lots to do.
The Interpretive Centre is the place for you!”
John and Richard beckon, “Welcome, everyone!”
Their enthusiasm is second to none.
In 1856 potash was found,
In Germany, 10,000 ft underground.
The word “potash” John said with a smirk,
Was actually plant ashes spread on the dirt.
First plants were burned, quite a lot.
Then the ashes boiled in a pot.
The plants grew well, tall and fat,
And Potash was born, just like that!
Potassium in the ash made the plants grow.
Potash has 40% KCl, don’t ‘cha know?
In 1943 Radville men drilled for oil,
They had no luck drilling in that soil.
So off to Unity, with a bound,
But potash was still not to be found.
So Unity mined salt, but Esterhazy wanted more.
Germany gave them technology ideas galore.
Late in the ’50’s dedicated men broke ground,
And there it was, potash all around.
To drill out the potash, 3000 ft down or more,
A miner is driven to drill out that ore.
“Keep above the clay and eyeball it for now,”
But today they use a laser (we don’t know how!)
The miner is run on electricity, 4160 volts,
And building the shaft took 17000 bolts.
Through the Blairmore foundation the shaft must go,
But the water-bearing layer is like quicksand. Oh no!
Freezing it is the only way,
We can get that shaft to go down and stay.
Finally, June 8, 1962 it’s done.
What to name it? K1 won!
If underground and lights are flashing,
Four different colours gets everyone dashing.
Mechanics, engineers, electricians and others,
“Call up to dispatch, depending on your colour.”
120 seconds is all that it takes,
For potash to be retrieved from Ice Age lakes.
If potash goes to China, they dye it red,
“It’s the colour of happiness,” they said.
The equipment is huge but it’s no trouble.
They put it together underground on the double.
250 tonnes a miner weighs,
Putting it all together only takes a few days.
K1 and K2 are like one big family,
Hiring more than 1200 employees.
But don’t worry, no need for tears,
K3 and others…who knows 500 more years???
So when travelling down Highway 22,
And wondering what your family should do.
Stop in Esterhazy at the Potash Interpretive Center.
Meet Richard and John, they’ll be your mentors.
