Trex then Saskatoon

We left Shaunavon and toured the clay pits and learned me some pottery. 

Searched for fossils with my daughter and found a piece of tyrannosaur toe nail. 

Finished it off with a gourmet meal. 

Yes, life is good. It will be even better when I get home to Consul

Willowbunch, then Coronach

We spent the night at the Stage Coach Inn after a good barbecue at the golf course. The next morning we took the obligatory picture in front of the statue of the giant.

We toured the dragline which is one of the largest in Canada. If you parked the machine on the goal line at Mosaic, it could dig a hole in the far end zone.

We were able to see the exposed coal seams and collect samples. The equipment is all at least twice as large as normal.

We finished the day with the most pain in the ass walk ever. It was over 900 m above sea level which works out to a 150 m rise. The terrain was very difficult on the way up and even harder coming back, but I was one of the first to finish.

In the mine.

In the mine. 

 We traveled for 30 minutes underground to one of the miners. Everything is covered with salt and the walls are always crumbling. 

It is so dark that your light disappears in a very short distance. 

Rocanville mine.

This is one of the largest in the world. It ships a lot to the states so we don't usually see their orange cars in Sask. 

This building is the 3rd largest storage building in the world. 

A happy miner. 

Early morning in Esterhazy.

Breakfast at six and a presentation by the HR guy from Mosaic. 

The largest headframe in the country as it is being built.

Esterhazy is proud of potash.

We arrived in Esterhazy after 6 and half of our group went for supper and the rest were supposed to tour the Potash Interpretation Center.

 Over an hour of waiting for the guy to show up to open the door was a little irritating, but he was very good and it is a great facility. They drill down over 3500 ft and the mine is 34 km wide. Pretty impressive. 

This is their mascot, Potash Pete.

We have an early morning again so we can get to Rocanville, then Willowbunch.

Mosaic mine.

We had lunch at the mine then, after a PowerPoint presentation, we took a tour of the facility. Our guide was Climby McClimbalot. After about 40 sets of stairs  we made it to the top of an evaporation facility. Only about 40 degrees with major humidity, no problem. I did not know that their potash was white. 

Heading to Esterhazy now. We are supposed to visit a potash museum. 

Leaving Saskatoon for Belle Plaine

Potash Corp presentation this morning. Long drive today, Belle Plaine then Esterhazy.

Flying back

We spent the day at the Rabbit Lake uranium mine and it was quite the experience. The long flight was made much shorter by the view. There is amazing terrain as you get north of LaRonge. Everywhere you look there are hundreds of lakes, and I learned that they all point north east. The glacier came from the Bay and scraped the softer rock which left the lakes and they all radiate from there.

The safety and environmental measures are crazy up there. They are very concerned with cleaning up the area and making sure there is no downtime due to accidents. It would have been uneventful except that the last group that went into the mine had their engine blow in the truck they were driving. It caused quite a stir when the diesel exhaust overcame them. They sent another vehicle to get them.

We should be landing in half an hour or so.

I look pretty good eh? The fact it was about 30 degrees outside made it very uncomfortable.

This is the old truck that blew an engine. This was taken half an hour earlier.

Landing in rabbit lake after 1.5 hr flight

Learning about diamonds

Spent the afternoon learning more about diamonds than I ever needed to know.

Went to Golftown and picked up a new putter, it should take a bunch of stokes off my game.

We were told we were supposed to bring a long sleeved shirt, so off to WalMart we go.

Had supper with a couple of guys from Potash Corp. and it was good.

We leave at 5:45 in the morning for Rabbit Lake. By the way, it is not the one on the map. It is actually 5 hrs northeast of Saskatoon.

I was able to room with Kevin so it worked out pretty well

Hotel room

Nice hotel room.

The tour itself

Here is our plan for the week. We fly to Rabbit Lake, then back to Saskatoon. Everything else is a bus ride. Sorry it is not clearer. I will try to get a better map later.

Leaving Consul

This will provide an ongoing series of updates for the trip. I will be leaving for Morse tonight and arrive after supper. It is nice having family halfway to the site to cut some time in half. I beat my son in golf today and met some nice people as well. Good start.