http://bloomberg.com/news/2014-12-10/uralkali-sees-high-risk-of-complete-flood-at-russian-potash-mine.html

OAO Uralkali sees a high risk that its Solikamsk-2 potash mine east of Moscow will be completely flooded, forcing the world’s biggest producer of the fertilizer to abandon a site that makes up almost a fifth of its capacity.

Russia’s largest potash miner is monitoring the site after halting operations as water began flowing into the mine on Nov. 18. A sinkhole that has widened to 50 meters (164 feet) by 80 meters opened near the mine, swallowing up local summer homes.

“The possibility of the negative scenario - complete mine flooding - remains high,” Uralkali said today in a statement, citing Alexander Baryakh, a director of the Russian Academy of Science’s local Mining Institute who’s working at the site.

Uralkali workers and mine-rescue specialists are pumping brine from the eastern part of the site to the west to try to prevent flooding adjacent to the mine shaft. The company is also digging a channel to divert flows and strengthening walls that divide Solikamsk-2 from the neighboring Solikamsk-1 mine.

A total shutdown of the site threatens to hand Uralkali’s crown as the biggest miner of the commodity to Canada’s Potash Corp. of Saskatchewan Inc., which has been expanding operations. Uralkali lost a site in Berezniki in the Perm region eight years ago after a more than 100-meter sinkhole opened above the mine. Water is deadly for potash as it dissolves the mineral deposit.