Lanigan

Last night there was a gentleman in the cafe who had worked in the potash mine for 26 years. A few details that I found quite mind-boggling.

There are many miles of two lane tunnels underground about 13′ high which are identified by street names and even have signal lights. These tunnels are about 3,000 feet underground. He described when they would come across a lake and freeze it!

I guess all the ore is brought to the buildings on the surface and separated there. The huge pink appearing mound is the tailings which consists mostly salt — some of it is used on the highways but at some point the rest will be buried back in the lake.

When the mine opened in the 60s they had about 550 employees. Now it is mostly automated, so it is handled by a few people.