Company officials are pleased with the progress being made at K+S Potash Canada’s Legacy Project at Bethune.

On Monday, the company received the first 177 custom built rail cars at its site.

The new cars fit with the company’s state of the art facility allowing the cars to be loaded while moving along the track.

"We actually expect to produce the first potash in the second quarter of 2017," explained Steffen Brill, the Senior Manager of Logistics and Transportation for the company. "We are going to reach the two million tonne capacity mark by the end of 2017."

Brill says their state of the art facility needs tools such as these cars to be extremely efficient.

"It allows us to load cars as quickly as possible and this was always the design criteria for the Legacy Project. We are doing that to optimize our efficiency and our loading times at the mine." 

The rail cars will transport the product to their facility at Port Moody where it will be shipped to customers around the world.

The K+S Potash Legacy Mine will employ about 400 people.