K&S : Hattorf Site can Resume Production

24 November 2016

Increased Water Flow of the Werra

Today, the Hattorf site will restart the extraction and processing of crude salts again. Because of the higher flow of water in the Werra, the Werra plant can operate at full capacity at all three sites for the time being at least.

The rainfall over the past few days resulted in a significant increase in the flow of water in the Werra. This means that the tailings pile water incurred each day can be completely discharged and, moreover, production wastewater held in storage could be discharged into the Werra river as well. Thus, there is sufficient certainty with regard to disposal to resume production at the site.

However, without additional deep-well injection options or continued high water levels in the Werra river, full production will not be possible in the Hesse-Thuringia potash district over a longer period of time. Despite efficient wastewater management on site, further production limitations in the coming weeks as a result of weather conditions cannot be ruled out as the review of the K+S application concerning deep-well injection until the end of 2021 is still ongoing. The temporary injection volume of 725,000 cubic meters approved by the regulatory authority for the current year was used up by the end of October. The temporary measures already implemented (Springen and Bergmannssegen-Hugo) help, but cannot compensate for the missing deep-well injection permit. Thus, the disposal of production and tailings pile wastewater will continue to depend on the flow of water in the Werra.

The interruption to production at the Hattorf site began on 4 May and could only be suspended for a few days in June. About 1,300 employees of the Werra site's total workforce of 4,400 were affected by short-time working lately.

Further information on the subject of wastewater management at the Werra site can be found at:

http://www.k-plus-s.com/en/gewaesserschutz/abwassermanagement.html

About K+S KALI GmbH

K+S KALI GmbH based in Kassel extracts crude salts containing potassium, magnesium and sulphur from its six mines in Germany. These are used to produce a wide range of fertiliser specialties and preliminary products for many different technical, industrial and pharmaceutical applications. K+S KALI GmbH is one of the world's leading suppliers of potash and magnesium products. The company belonging to the K+S Group employs about 8,000 people.

You can find further information about K+S KALI GmbH on the company website at www.kali-gmbh.com.

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