K&S : Saline Water from K+S Plants to be Used for Flooding Purposes

9 November 2016

Securing the decommissioned Bergmannssegen-Hugo mine

The K+S Werra and Braunschweig-Lüneburg plants will transport saline water to the decommissioned Bergmannssegen-Hugo (Sehnde, Hanover region) in the future. It will be used to flood the mine there. An appropriate permit has now been issued by the Lower Saxony State Authority for Mining, Energy and Geology following an application from the Company.

The Lower Saxony mining authority has granted K+S a permit allowing it to use saline water from the Werra and Braunschweig-Lüneburg plants to fill underground cavities in the disused Bergmannssegen-Hugo mine. Flooding is prescribed in Lower Saxony for the long-term securing of salt and potash mines. Until now, the Bergmannssegen-Hugo mine used saline solutions from a natural gas cavern project in Empelde, which has almost been completed in the meantime, in an environmentally friendly way in addition to service water from the Mittelland Canal. As the solutions will no longer be available from November, saline waters from tailings piles from the Werra plant as well as from the Lower Saxony Braunschweig-Lüneburg salt mine (Grasleben near Helmstedt) are to be used for flooding. The collection of service water from the Mittelland Canal should be reduced in line with the volume of saline solutions used.

Between 1,500 and a maximum of 4,000 cubic meters of saline water per day are to be transported to Sehnde from the Werra plant. This corresponds to approximately 10 to 30 per cent of the saline water volume that arises there. Trucks will initially be used as a means of transportation with rail tank cars the preferred choice later.

The saline water delivered from the Braunschweig-Lüneburg plant has hitherto still been used for the flooding of the Mariaglück mine (Celle district). The flooding of the mine will be completed by the end of the year.

The use of saline water from the K+S plants to flood the Bergmannssegen‑Hugo mine will also serve to reduce the effects of the limited possibilities that currently exist for the disposal of saline wastewater at the Werra plant.

More information on this subject is available at:

www.k-plus-s.com/en/gewaesserschutz/

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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