All other significant activities at the mine are also on hold, including construction of the No. 4 Shaft and a bypass around a rock burst from December.
When the drilling is finished, water, combined with chemicals designed to reduce friction and serve other purposes, is injected from the surface into the well shaft at very high pressures, thereby fracturing the shale rock formations far below, and making it possible to extract economically the natural gas embedded in the shale.
Potash is a soft rock, which is extracted from sedimentary sea beds formed by evaporation of ancient seas, which is mined via conventional shaft mining like gold and silver.