How Climate Change Could Affect The Water Supply of Potash of Potash Solution Mining in Southern Saskatchewan
type: CreativeWork
description: Potash mining is one of the most significant industries in Canada and an important part of Saskatchewan’s economy, as potash is a leading commodity by the value of production. During the last decade, there has been an increased number of new potash mine developments and expansion projects within the province. A new solution mine started its operation in May 2017 and five more mines are either under construction, or will be by 2020. All mines but one will utilize a solution technique for ore extraction, and solution potash mining is heavily reliant upon water availability. Currently there is a sufficient amount of fresh water available within Saskatchewan for potash production, however this could change as a result of climate change and variability. In the last 50 years, since potash mining was introduced to Saskatchewan, there has not been a drought longer than one or two years, but the paleohydrology from tree-rings reveals that droughts within the region can last for a decade or longer. This research was conducted to examine how climate change could affect the water supply of solution potash mining in southern Saskatchewan. The South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB) and the Qu’Appelle River Basin (QRB) runoff was projected using output from a large ensemble of regional climate models (RCMs) from the NARCCAP and CORDEX scientific programs. The observed runoff and its annual cycle over 1971-2000 was simulated using seven different runoff estimation methods, total runoff (mrro), surface runoff (mrros), four aridity indices (Budyko, Ol’dekop, Schreiber and Turc) and statistical downscaling, in order to identify the best two estimators of observed runoff. Based on the quantile indicators of goodness of fit, total runoff (mrro) and the statistical downscaling based on the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) are the best estimation techniques for the SSRB, and were used to project the 21st century runoff within the basin. None of the estimation meth…
abstract: Potash mining is one of the most significant industries in Canada and an important part of Saskatchewan’s economy, as potash is a leading commodity by the value of production. During the last decade, there has been an increased number of new potash mine developments and expansion projects within the province. A new solution mine started its operation in May 2017 and five more mines are either under construction, or will be by 2020. All mines but one will utilize a solution technique for ore extraction, and solution potash mining is heavily reliant upon water availability. Currently there is a sufficient amount of fresh water available within Saskatchewan for potash production, however this could change as a result of climate change and variability. In the last 50 years, since potash mining was introduced to Saskatchewan, there has not been a drought longer than one or two years, but the paleohydrology from tree-rings reveals that droughts within the region can last for a decade or longer. This research was conducted to examine how climate change could affect the water supply of solution potash mining in southern Saskatchewan. The South Saskatchewan River Basin (SSRB) and the Qu’Appelle River Basin (QRB) runoff was projected using output from a large ensemble of regional climate models (RCMs) from the NARCCAP and CORDEX scientific programs. The observed runoff and its annual cycle over 1971-2000 was simulated using seven different runoff estimation methods, total runoff (mrro), surface runoff (mrros), four aridity indices (Budyko, Ol’dekop, Schreiber and Turc) and statistical downscaling, in order to identify the best two estimators of observed runoff. Based on the quantile indicators of goodness of fit, total runoff (mrro) and the statistical downscaling based on the standardized precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) are the best estimation techniques for the SSRB, and were used to project the 21st century runoff within the basin. None of the estimation meth…
author: Andreichuk, Iuliia
language: en
date published: 2017-11
date modified: 2026-07-24T04:03:32Z
provider: University of Regina
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/10294/8442

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.82465/4165