NEWS FROM THE FIELD : INNOVATION

Spending estimates adjusted lower

CBC – New forecasts show dramatically lower expectations for 2020 capital spending in the oil and gas sector both nationally and in Saskatchewan and especially in Alberta, the province that produces 65 per cent of the country’s natural gas and 82 per cent of its oil.

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers now estimates that $23.3 billion will be spent in the oil and gas production sector in Canada this year, down from about $37 billion in its January forecast.

Producers have announced billions of dollars in budget cuts since the start of the year to cope with lower oil prices as global energy demand plummets due to measures taken to control the COVID-19 pandemic.

Its January prediction represented about a six-per-cent increase over 2019, credited to new industry friendly policies in Alberta and Saskatchewan and growing optimism that export pipeline capacity would be added.

Bids see lowest-ever June public offering

CBC – Saskatchewan’s June public offering of Crown petroleum and natural gas rights, where companies place bids for the rights to explore and drill for oil on parcels of land, brought in $442,125 for the province — the lowest-ever total for a June offering.
According to the Ministry of Energy and Resources, the previous June low was $472,032 in 1968.

That’s a fraction of the revenue brought in by last June’s oil and gas public offering, which raised more than $6 million.

Ten years ago, the June public offering — one of six held throughout the year — generated $46.2 million.

This year’s low sales come after oil prices plunged in the spring due in part to the COVID-19 pandemic — even briefly turning negative in mid-April — and experts are uncertain about the industry’s path to recovery or change.

Sask. funds $400K for methane reduction research

CTV News – The provincial government is investing $400,000 to support research that aims to reduce methane emissions through new technologies.

The research, which is part of the government’s Methane Action Plan, will be conducted by the Saskatchewan Research Council.

The field-testing will help identify technologies that convert currently vented and flared methane into commercialized products.

Oil and gas producers will also be providing funding, helping validate projects before they are adopted commercially.

The government said the research council, along with the oil and gas sector, will review proposed technologies to identify ones that have the best potential to reduce methane emissions. As well, they will identify technologies that work best for Saskatchewan’s conditions.

Saskatchewan’s methane plan is part of the province’s Prairie Resilience climate change strategy and its growth plan.

The plan aims to reduce emissions from methane venting and flaring in the upstream oil and gas sector. The goal is to see emissions reduced by 40 to 45 per cent by 2025.

South Sask. governments eye tenuous coal-free economic future

Coronach’s administrator, Catherine MacKay-Wilson, said the coming coal phase-out “strengthened our need to realize the power of a region more than an individual town on its own.”

Coronach also commissioned the consultant firm MBD Insight to do a socio-economic impact study to collect data on the partnership’s economic goals.

Analyzing Coronach and its surrounding RM, the RM of Hart Butte, MBD’s report estimates the closure of the coal mine and its power plant will: Cut the area’s population by 573 people (67 per cent); trim 388 jobs (67 per cent); and reduce the area’s GDP by $390 million (89 per cent).

Looking to the past, Siggelkow has detailed, historical knowledge of coal’s importance to the region.

“Prior to it going industrial, when it was domestic use, (people) depended on it. Every house in town burned coal and all had an ash pile by spring … It was the mainstay of the people being here,” he said.

From 1910 to 1950, 19 different, locally owned coal mines were operational around Coronach. These first set-ups were small, not expected to turn much of a profit.
In the two years he owned the Coronach Mine, he only had three employees; together the four of them put out 30 to 40 tons of coal per day, priced at $2.25 per ton, netting a daily maximum of $90.

Cluff Lake ready for final closure

Canadian Mining Journal – Between 1980 and 2002, the Cluff Lake mine in northwest Saskatchewan produced more than 62 million pounds of uranium concentrate, with the site also producing gold between 1984-88.

After a planning process that included extensive public engagement, the site, which once hosted four open pits and two underground mines, was decommissioned and reclaimed between 2004-06. Ongoing environmental monitoring shows that the decommissioning was successful, with water quality meeting objectives, radiation levels within the regional background range, and fish, animals and plants harvested on site safe for consumption.

For operator Orano, the success of the site’s reclamation is a point of pride, especially as the project, located 855 km north of Saskatoon in Treaty 8 territory, was the first uranium mine to be subject to modern-era decommissioning and reclamation standards introduced in the late 1990s.

Now that the site has been proven to be chemically and physically stable by 14 years of post-closure monitoring, Cluff Lake is poised for another first. Orano has applied to transfer control of the site to the province under Saskatchewan’s Institutional Control Program.

Introduced in 2007, the regulation is one of the first formal programs to be developed that spells out the conditions under which responsibility for a closed mine site can be transferred back to the hosting jurisdiction.

Cluff Lake will be the first major uranium mining site to be transferred to the province – so far only the Contact Lake gold mine and several satellite sites of the historic Beaverlodge operation (mined between 1952 and 1982 by Crown corporation Eldorado Resources) have been transferred.

As part of the transfer, Orano will provide funds for the long-term monitoring and maintenance of the site and an assurance fund to cover costs related to unexpected events.

Rehabilitation work conducted at the site included decommissioning and removing all buildings, including a mill complex; backfilling mined out pits or converting them to pit lakes; and planting more than 650,000 local trees and shrubs. Underground mine entrances were also closed off and blended into the environment. The tailings in the tailings management area were consolidated into a solid mass, covered with a dry cover (local glacial till), with the cover contoured and planted with grasses native to area. The water removed from the consolidated tailings was treated prior to release.

The cover is a simple till cover, which is preferred over a complex cover, such as one with a low-permeability cap, because simple till covers are expected to improve over time with less intervention.

As the tailings contain contaminants including uranium and radium, the decomissioned tailings area was designed to limit the amount of snow and rain infiltrating the tailings in order to control the release of contaminants.

SMA to assume responsibility for potash group

Pipeline News – The Saskatchewan Mining Association is taking over the activities and responsibilities handled by the Saskatchewan Potash Producers Association effective immediately, according to a joint media release.

The SPPA’s three producing members, Nutrien, Mosaic and K+S Potash Canada, are all members of the SMA.

“Member companies felt that continuing with a separate industry association for potash was no longer necessary and therefore we have worked with the SMA to assume the SPPA responsibilities”, said Sam Farris, the SPPA’s board director. “We believe the amalgamation of responsibilities through the SMA will create efficiencies and reduce overlap between the two associations.”

“We look forward to undertaking the additional responsibilities that will be transitioning to the SMA from the SPPA and continuing to effectively represent these members’ interests”, stated SMA Chair Tammy Van Lambalgen.

The SPPA was created in 1983 when potash mining was still a developing industry in Saskatchewan and served as a voice for discussions with government when the industry consisted of a number of smaller players.

Sask. mining industry unevenly affected by pandemic

Saskatoon Star Phoenix – The coronavirus pandemic forced everyone, including Saskatchewan’s largest mining company, to develop a plan for the worst-case scenario, likely a major outbreak.

Ken Seitz, who runs Nutrien Ltd.’s potash operations, is grateful he never had to use it.
“Just a few months ago, I was entertaining and planning around how we would, in the face of an extreme outbreak, safely shut down these operations … We were all asking those questions,” Seitz said in an interview.

Saskatchewan’s multi-billion-dollar mining industry has been unevenly affected by the pandemic, which forced businesses of every stripe to temporarily close or rapidly rethink operations and devastated entire sectors of the economy.

The division is broadly geographic. Potash companies with mines in the southern half of the province kept digging out pink gold, while uranium and gold miners with remote northern operations decided, more or less simultaneously, to close down in March.
“When we look across Canada, and even globally, we’ve seen a number of (fly-in) operations suspend production,” said Saskatchewan Mining Association president Pam Schwann, P. Geo.
“It’s all for a similar reason — the mining sector wants to make sure they’re not a pathway for COVID to enter into communities that maybe don’t have the same health and medical supports.”

Mining was declared an essential service in the early days of the pandemic. Potash, for example, is used as fertilizer around the world, and food security was an immediate concern in March and April.

Seitz said the company moved swiftly to implement safety measures for employees. While hundreds of the company’s employees have self-isolated, only four have contracted COVID-19, and none since April 3, he said.

The transition to operating a mine in the midst of a pandemic has been getting easier for workers, according to United Steelworkers spokesman Darrin Kruger, whose union represents miners with Nutrien and other companies.

In the early days of the pandemic, Kruger said, union locals across the province met with management to develop protocols to keep the mines running and the miners safe. Those talks were largely productive.

Precautions now in place include limits on gathering in confined spaces, such as the mine cage and break rooms, as well as the vehicles that roam roads deep underground that most people never see.

While safety measures, new operating procedures and isolating employees could have slowed down operations, Seitz said the company has been able to make up for that with overtime.
“We have not lost production as a result,” he said, adding that the possibility of large swings in demand for potash from corn and palm oil producers have not materialized since the pandemic began.

K+S Potash Canada spokeswoman Maeghan Dubois offered a similar assessment, saying the company’s Bethune mine continued operating through the pandemic without a slowdown or curtailment.

To date, she said, none of the company’s employees have been diagnosed with COVID-19.
Cameco Corp. temporarily halted production at its Cigar Lake uranium mine about 600 kilometres north of Saskatoon, while Orano Canada Inc. shut down its McLean Lake mill, which processes ore from Cigar Lake.

SSR Mining Inc. similarly decided to put its Seabee gold operation near La Ronge — the only such facility in the province — into what the industry calls care and maintenance mode. All three companies cited safety concerns.

Cameco has pledged to continue paying laid-off employees, many of whom live in the north, at a reduced rate. Schwann said that means the shutdowns will “disproportionately” affect local contracting companies that serve the large miners.
Some in the contracting industry suggested work was postponed rather than cancelled entirely and signalled they expect to see it resume in the coming weeks and months.
Mining exploration has also been severely curtailed by the pandemic, in part because of northern travel restrictions making it difficult or impossible for prospectors to access remote sites.

A spokesman for Cameco — which has previously closed its McArthur River and Key Lake mill due to a prolonged downturn in uranium prices — said all of its northern operations remain in care and maintenance mode.

Schwann, meanwhile, said mining companies now have an opportunity to accelerate projects already in the works aimed at making underground mining more autonomous — a big push in the industry in recent years.

Seitz said that work is continuing at Nutrien, as it works to build the “mine of the future” while continuing to dig out potash to sell around the world.

Squirrel saloon has clientele going nuts

Global News – During the COVID-19 pandemic, many people have undertaken projects at home to pass the time.

Dave Hunchak, P.Eng. constructed a western-style saloon.

However, the clientele at the One Star Saloon aren’t people. They’re squirrels.
“These Franklin’s ground squirrels showed up here maybe three or four years ago and we hadn’t had them before, and they were quite bold,” Hunchak said. “So, we started trying to feed them and last year they would come and take a peanut from your hand, and this spring they remembered.”

It took roughly 100 hours for the retired engineer to complete the two-storey saloon, which comes complete with paintings, a pair of tables and chairs, a piano and a bar.
“(Being able to) measure out our piano and then build a little version of it, and make the cabinets the right height, then they look sort of proportionate to the squirrel,” Hunchak said. “They use them well too, like when they’re sitting at the table, it looks pretty darn good.”

Hunchak said the squirrels are fairly territorial and will chase each other off if there is more than one in the saloon at a time.

“They’ll have a little scrap, so there’s quite a few bar fights,” he said.

Saskatchewan launches new lithium production project

Global News – Saskatchewan will soon be home to a new lithium production project.

The Prairie-LiEP Critical Mineral joint venture is being undertaken by Prairie Lithium Corp. and LiEP Energy Ltd.

Their two-stage pilot project will produce lithium hydroxide from some of the province’s oilfield brines.

The first stage of the project is based in Regina and is set to being in July. The second stage is set for the second half of 2021, with field operations in southern parts of the province.

The project has been conditionally approved by the Ministry of Energy and Resources under the Saskatchewan Petroleum Innovation Incentive (SPII) program.

SPII targets a broad range of innovations deployed across the province’s oil and gas industry, which includes lithium.

Stage 1 of the joint venture will produce one to 1.75 kilograms of lithium hydroxide each day, while Stage 2 will include the construction of Canada’s first lithium extraction and refining facilities. That will help produce about one tonne of lithium hydroxide every day.

The province said global demand for lithium is expected to increase by 10 per cent every year between 2019 and 2024.

New U of S filter may lead to safer drinking water

Saskatoon Star Phoenix – A University of Saskatchewan chemical engineering graduate student is developing a new, environmentally friendly bio-filter that can remove arsenic from water and could help make drinking water safer across Canada and worldwide.
“Our filter aims to remove the arsenic from water by combining two natural materials that have separately shown promise for capturing this metal,” said Khaled Zoroufchi Benis, a PhD student from Iran who has recently been awarded a prestigious 2020 Vanier Canada Graduate Scholarship.

One third of Canadians rely on groundwater as a source of drinking water. While arsenic is naturally present in water at various concentrations, these natural levels are not always safe, as exposure to arsenic may cause health problems such as cancer, diabetes and heart diseases.

“Our bio-compatible filter may have an impact around the world in countries such as India and Bangladesh as well where arsenic contamination is a big issue,” said U of S chemical engineering professor Jafar Soltan, Zoroufchi Benis’ co-supervisor.

The filter uses a bedding material made of biochar — activated carbon, a dark powder created from agricultural waste — and microalgae. Naturally found in water, some types of microalgae are highly resistant to arsenic but also can absorb it in their bodies.
Zoroufchi Benis will use the Canadian Light Source synchrotron at U of S to study the properties of these materials and create more efficient bio-filters.The goal is to produce an alternative treatment method for arsenic-contaminated waters that would be cheaper and safer compared to the current expensive processes that rely on chemicals.

The bio-filter will be designed to produce highly concentrated and stable arsenic waste that can be stored safely. The filter will also be adaptable both to industrial and household uses.



Engineering grad plays waiting game

U of S News – Engineering grad Evan Machibroda is one member of the U of S Huskies who planned to be playing in the Canadian Football League this season.
Instead, the CFL season is delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. It means that Machibroda must now wait to kick off his pro career.

Machibroda, a defensive lineman and 2019 Edmonton Eskimos draft pick, completed his fifth and final season with the Huskies by being named a U Sports All-Canadian and honoured as the most outstanding lineman in the Canada West conference. He led the Canada West conference with five quarterback sacks.

While there are no Spring Convocation ceremonies to attend, due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Machibroda celebrated his bachelor’s degree, after finishing his final online exam. A two-time All-Canadian who could have turned pro last year, the 6-foot-3, 280-pound Machibroda made a point of returning to the U of S to complete his engineering degree.

Machibroda posted an average of better than 75 per cent while completing a full course load of 24 credit units.

He also was named Huskie Athletics all-around male athlete of the year for 2019-20.

Budget offers support for energy sector

Pipeline News – The 2020-21 provincial budget provides strong support for the growth and future economic development of Saskatchewan’s prime natural resource sectors.
The budget includes $150 million for the Accelerated Site Closure Program, which supports the abandonment and reclamation of inactive oil and gas wells and facilities which gets Saskatchewan people back to work.

The program will prioritize Saskatchewan-based service companies and support up to 2,100 full-time equivalent jobs. Up to 8,000 inactive wells and facilities will be abandoned and reclaimed over the life of the program.

The government also has recently introduced another SaskFirst new growth tax incentive, the Oil Infrastructure Investment Program, which will support new and expanded pipelines, as well as new pipeline terminals, with the goal of getting Saskatchewan oil to export markets.

The budget also provides continued support for existing SaskFirst incentive programs, including the Oil and Gas Processing Investment Incentive, the Saskatchewan Petroleum Innovation Incentive and the Targeted Mineral Exploration Incentive.

The government also reinstated the provincial sales tax exemptions for exploratory and downhole drilling activity. The reinstated PST exemption for downhole oil and gas drilling services has also been expanded to include drilling for helium.

Saskatchewan could be new energy tech frontrunner

Nature World News – Saskatchewan has a promising future as an energy technology frontrunner. Instead of solar power companies granting loans or wind power businesses giving large land grants, Saskatchewan is looking into the adoption of small modular nuclear reactors.

These modular reactors may be small enough for transport and this project is considered to be the most significant shift in terms of energy technology this century.
The Saskatchewan government announced the establishment of an office to help the push for nuclear power. The office will assist in the planning and development of nuclear reactors in the province.

The Ministry of Environment, through Minister Dustin Duncan, expressed that collaboration with several partners in this endeavor is required. In order to establish and adopt small modular reactors, the government’s nuclear secretariat needs to coordinate with the Climate Change and Adaptation Division regarding its nuclear policy and program work.
The policy is considered suitable for Saskatchewan since Cigar Lake Uranium Mine, the world’s highest-grade uranium mine is located in the northern part of the province.
Innovation in Saskatchewan uses a jet-boring method to mine Cigar Lake’s ore, which is considered a challenging feat. The jet-boring technique does not require direct personnel contact with the orebody. Instead, it uses high-pressure water to cut cavities from the ore.

This new program will ensure the localization of energy production within the province.
Around 50 to 300 megawatts of power is projected to be produced by these SMRs. The government is aiming for reactors or power modules that are designed to be small enough for truck or shipping container transportation.
The use of SMRs, however, is not projected until the 2030s.

Unique hydrogen project coming to province

CKRM – An Alberta-based company is to embark on a first-of-its-kind hydrogen project in the world.

Proton Technologies will be deploying its patented process in the Kerrobert area to extract hydrogen from existing oil reservoirs while keeping carbon dioxide trapped in the ground.

This is the first formally approved initiative under the government’s Saskatchewan Petroleum Innovation Incentive (SPII) program, which was created to support the commercialization of innovations in the oil and natural gas sectors.

“Saskatchewan is a great place to invest and do business, especially in the energy industry,” Proton Technologies Chairman and CEO Grant Strem said. “We are excited to move ahead with the first commercial deployment of this technology in the world here in Saskatchewan and we have exciting plans to further advance and scale this technology in future stages.”

Kruger Energy to build solar facility

Sask Power – Kruger Energy Saskatchewan Solar will build Saskatchewan’s second utility-scale solar project. Kruger’s Foxtail Grove Solar Power Facility will be located in northeast Regina. It will provide 10 megawatts (MW) of power, or enough clean energy to power more than 2,600 homes.

Kruger will build, own and manage the facility, while selling the power produced to SaskPower over a 20-year term.

Construction is expected to begin in 2021, with the facility expected to be in service as early as the end of 2021.

Saskatchewan’s first solar project, Highfield Solar, is currently under construction near Swift Current and is expected to come online before the end of 2021.

SaskPower has committed to adding 60 MW of solar power to the provincial power grid in the coming years.