Mosaic Immediately Closing The K1 And K2 Potash Mine Shafts Esterhazy - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Mosaic Co. (MOS) announced Friday that it is immediately closing the K1 and K2 potash mine shafts at Esterhazy. Closing K1 and K2 are key pieces of the transition to K3 but the timeline for the closure has been accelerated by nine months due to a recent acceleration of brine inflows.

The company is planning to resume production at the Colonsay potash mine and recalling workers as soon as practical. This restart will offset a portion of the production lost by the early closure of the K1 and K2 shafts at Esterhazy.

This is expected to position the company to take advantage of the expected strong potash markets in 2022 and beyond.

By March of 2022, the company's annualized potash production could increase by 2 million tonnes from 2020 levels, as Esterhazy K3 ramps up to full capacity and Colonsay returns to service.

As a result of these operational changes, the company expects to eliminate brine management expenses after July 2021 and materially increase 2022 available potash capacity.

During the expected transition period of July 2021 to March 2022, the company anticipates its potash production to be reduced by approximately one million tonnes. By mid-2022, available annualized operational MOP capacity is expected to be 10.5 million tonnes.