ESTEVAN MINE, SASKATCHEWAN
The 4.2 million tons of annual production from the 20,331-hectare Estevan Mine, located in Southeastern Saskatchewan between Estevan and Bienfait, supplies Saskatchewan Power Corporation’s four-unit Boundary Dam and single-unit Shand Generating Station, an activated carbon processing joint venture, and a wholly-owned char plant, whose product is used to manufacture barbecue briquettes.
Boundary Dam’s 115 MW Unit #3 operates a breakthrough Carbon Capture, Utilization and Storage (CCUS) facility that has demonstrated a verified ability to remove over 90% of CO2 emissions from the unit – up to 75,000 tons a month – with increasing levels of reliability and rapidly reducing costs.
The activated carbon processed from Estevan’s production is a versatile substance with applications across industrial use, medical products, agriculture, fuel storage, gas and chemical purification and environmental amelioration.
Estevan Mine uses advanced topsoil stockpiling techniques to minimize erosion along with contour leveling, unmanned aerial vehicle surveying as well as 3D modeling and equipment simulation software to optimize reclamation efficiency and re-vegetation of all disturbed land developed before being returned to prior use activities.
