On Friday, Matt and I went on a tour of the PCS potash mine in Penobsquis, New Brunswick, as a precursor to the 2011 Atlantic Geoscience Society Colloquium in Fredericton.

The evaporites of the Early Carboniferous Windsor Group were formed as a result of two marine incursions into an otherwise clastic red bed sequence within the Moncton sub-basin. The evaporites containing the potash ore have been folded into a NE-SW trending anticline as shown in the diagram below.

Brian Roulston hosted 24 visitors into the mine. We were lowered about 400 m down to the main workings then driven approximately 10 km underground to three main attractions: a cavern stope in the Basal Halite; an active stope in the halite; finally an active stope in the potash ore (sylvinite).

Thanks to Brian and his team at PCS for putting this tour together for us, it was so much fun.

Signage

People

Gear

Salts, rusts, colors, and textures 

Darkness

Mining the ore