First Cowessess students graduate from new potash mining course

Nine people from the Cowessess First Nation are ready to start jobs in the potash industry.

The First Nation community teamed up with Mosaic and a professional development firm called Morris Interactive to put together a training course on mining the product.

It started in January, and the nine students are set to graduate Friday from the Digital Transformation in Potash Mining course.

Rob Kay Jr., 33, is one of the graduating students.

After working in a few different fields, he felt it was time for a change of pace. However, it actually started out with a bit of a coincidence.

Kay Jr. had just moved back to Cowessess from B.C. and was looking to get a job at the Jansen BHP mine since his dad works there as a security.

First, he needed to get some safety tickets. He reached out to Barry Sparvier, who works in labour force development at Cowessess.

“I just got ahold of him and said, ‘Hey, Barry, I need a couple of safety tickets for the mines. Do you think you could help me out?’ And he said, ‘Oh, you want to do the mining course?’ And I say, ‘What mining course?,’ ” Kay recalled.

“So then, I applied to this course. I ended up getting in … Then on Jan. 10, I started, and since then it’s been quite the roller-coaster of an adventure.”

He said there was a good mix of classroom and hands-on learning. It’s left him feeling prepared to get a job in the industry.

“Learning about mining, (the instructor) gave us full, in-depth detail about how it all began, (starting) from ancient Roman times … You got (an) appreciation of what’s in the modern world around you. And then you kind of realize everything around you is from mining. Not just potash — diamonds, metals, even wood,” he explained.

It was quite the shock to his system to go down into the Mosaic mine and see what it was like.

“It’s not what you think. You see all these dark, gloomy, wet places in Hollywood movies. There are supposed to be rats and rust everywhere. It was not like that at all,” he said.

“The only scary part about going down into the mines is riding the cages down. It’s shaking, it gets super dark, you can’t see in front of you at all. There’s no light.”

But he said that once he got used to the one-kilometre ride underground, it was very cool.

“Once you get down there, it’s a completely different world. It didn’t feel like you were underground, it felt like you were in big buildings,” Kay said. “And all around you, where you look, up on the ceiling, the walls, the floor, it’s all just potash. Just pink rock all around you. And they tour you around in these small little Jeep things with big cages around you, and you’re just cruising.”

Kay already had an interview lined up with Mosaic before his graduation.

“I am quite nervous, but I am so excited,” he said with a giggle.

Of the 12 students who initially began the course, nine will graduate. But that’s far from the end for the program.

Mathew Cey is the CEO of Morris Interactive, the firm that put together the course.

He said the experience has been very positive, and the company has learned a lot from it for the future.

“We really felt we could impact lives with this program, and we think that there’s life beyond this in terms of expanding this program into other industries,” he said.

“We think we can contribute to helping launch longer-term careers for First Nations and Métis students and employees that they may have not otherwise been exposed to. So the Cowessess First Nation deserves a lot of credit in all the work that they did to make this happen.”

He also believes it’s a positive step for Indigenous reconciliation.