A promising future for partnership

First Potash Ventures, a partnership between Encanto Potash and Muskowekwan Resources, is working toward developing the mine on the Muskowekan First Nation’s reserve. Encanto said its latest round of three-dimensional seismic exploration had resulted in an overall resource comprising of proven, probable, measured and indicated categories that would support a  potential life-of-mine of much longer than 70 years, based on full production levels of 2.8-million tonnes a year. The company noted the project had turned into a large and long-life project. “The merit of putting this project into production keeps getting stronger with each milestone,” Encanto CEO and President Jim Walchuck said. The project is expected to provide economic opportunities for the Muskowekwan First Nation, as well as the surrounding area, through training and employment opportunities during the construction and operation of the mine. While the project would become the first on-reserve potash mine in Canada, the proposed Muskowekwan project was the first in Saskatchewan to have been accepted by the federal government under the First Nations Commercial and Industrial Development Act of 2006, which enabled the federal government to enact a provincial regulatory regime to govern commercial and industrial activities within a First Nation reserve.