Ideal location
The area appears to be an ideal location for green-field projects. The flat land is easy to build upon and proximity to the major cities provides large labour pools, initially for construction and then homes for employees after completion.
"This area is ideal due to a number of factors but especially our infrastructure," Lemon said. "There's easy access to utilities, a solid road network plus both the CP Rail and CN Rail lines are nearby."
The newest addition to the industrial corridor is Alpine Plant Food, which opened its $9 million facility two months ago. It can produce 700,000 litres of liquid phosphate fertilizer and other micronutrients.
The potash mine, which opened in 1964, is now owned by Mosaic. There are almost 700 people who work at the facility, which produces about three million tonnes annually of potash for industrial use.
Mosaic is located directly north of where the TransCanada Highway loops over the CP Rail line just west of Belle Plaine.
Literally across the Kalium Road is the world's largest nitrogen fertilizer complex, Yara Belle Plaine. Opened in 1992, the former SaskFerco Products Inc. facility was acquired in 2008 by Yara International for $1.6 billion. SaskFerco had been a $435 million commercial joint venture between the Government of Saskatchewan and Cargill.
The Nachurs liquid fertilizer plant also operates near Belle Plaine.
Terra Grain Fuels opened about two years ago and has the capacity to produce about 150 million litres of ethanol and 163,800 tonnes of dried distillers' grains. Ethanol is a clean-burning fuel made from agricultural products such as wheat or corn. Distillers grains are a co-product of wheat-and-corn-based ethanol that are used as animal feed.
The reeve said some proposed developments for the industrial area include the TransCanada Polygeneration project, ETX Systems and Terra Max.
The global economic downturn delayed plans for the proposed $4 billion polygeneration facility. It would have been the largest industrial construction project in the history of Saskatchewan.
from Western Investor, January 2011
