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Last updateSat, 14 Dec 2024 12pm

Mine at Sheerness retooled for emerging ag industry product

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What was once considered a major setback for the Town of Hanna, has turned into a new and growing agricultural industry.
In 2015 the province began its ambitious phase-out of coal for electricity generation. A couple of years later ATCO indicated it would be phasing out coal generation “sooner rather than later” and the Sheerness power plant began transitioning to natural gas and the coal work was to be disbanded and reclaimed.
Agri-product manager for WestMET, Clay Williams explained the Westmoreland Mine would supply the Sheerness plant across the road.
“Once that was regulated out of competitiveness, the coal mine was pretty much done and it went into full reclamation mode,” he said. “February 2021 was our last coal shipped to the power plant.”
He said during this time they were selling humalite to various processors.
Humalite is a unique soil amendment that is formed during the decomposition of organic materials, a humic acid granule. It is a high-value organic matter that is used in soils to make them more fertile and productive.
In terms of organic and carbon matter, it is between coal and peat.
“We would sell it to get it out of the way, but once we did some research on it we started to learn this is the highest quality humic product in the entire world,” said Williams. “It has the highest humic content and low heavy metals. It’s a unicorn of a reserve and high amounts of it. At that point, we decided to experiment with different uses of this product.”
A new company sprung from Westmoreland Coal called WestMET that will develop the humalite products as well as create an advanced skills and technology platform focused on a large-scale reclamation.
They are producing an agricultural product that can be used for general agriculture as well as a turf-grade product, and a powered grade to turn into a liquid form.
“We went one step further and started putting it in one-ton totes and exporting it all over the world, and that is kind of where we are at now, said Williams. “We took this product that is kind of a specialty here and kind of turned it into something that kept the place alive.
The reclamation on the site continues, but so does this new initiative. While it may not employ as many employees as the mine did just a few years ago, it has kept an employer in the community.
“We hope to have all of that reclamation done by next year, that is a pretty tight timeline when you compare that to other mines that are taking 20-plus years, we are doing it in under five so it is a big effort,” he said. We are creating both sides of it. We are creating this green agricultural product that we want to be known for, whilst at the same time we want to be known for how good we are at reclamation.”
They are using humic products for their reclamation well, by combining it with organics to create new topsoil that can be used. They are also crafting products that help solve ag issues such as pH issues or low mineral content.
We pretty much turned this mine around from a dying coal mine to an opportunistic agricultural products line,” he said.
One challenge they are working on is creating a new market for their product.
“It is not used in North America that much… it is kind of a new thing for farmers here, whereas if you look at other places it is a very common agricultural input,” he said.
He explains that in other places such as Europe and Asia where farming has taken place for thousands of years, organic matter has been depleted, and they are using humic on their land.
“In North America, we have only been farming for hundreds of years so it hasn’t been a problem, but now farmers are looking more on the regenerative side of trying to increase organic matter and help the biology in their soils it has now become a focus, and this the primary product to help fix this.”
In terms of sustainability, he says this is the largest depot of this project at this high of quality in the world, and there is a lifetime of supply. In terms of extracting it , it is not as complex as coal.
“It is quite a bit easier. The coal is quite a bit deeper and we used a dragline and big coal haulers to move millions of tons of coal,” he said. “Humalite is quite a bit shallower and easy to access.”
“It is a different scale because we were talking about millions of tons of coal, now we are talking about thousands of tons of humalite, but as adoption increases throughout North America maybe we'll increase to those numbers again.”


Drumheller RCMP Crisis Team fully staffed, operational

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After receiving approval to develop a local branch of the Regional Police and Crisis Teams (RPACT) in 2023, Drumheller RCMP has fully staffed the local team as of October 29 of this year.
Constable Victor Iliescu was selected as the regular RCMP member to fulfill the role, and will work closely with registered psychiatric nurse Julia Davis, who has more than two decades of experience, to provide support on mental health and other calls received by RCMP; this team will service the Drumheller and surrounding areas, including Stettler, Beiseker, Three Hills, and Hanna.
“Cochrane has an RPACT team that used to cover up to this area, and there was obviously such vast distances extending all the way out to Oyen, the team is going to stretched pretty thin,” Cst. Iliescu tells the Mail.
“With having the team in Drumheller, we’re going to be able to take some of that load off of them and assist with mental health calls as they arise.”
At this time there are a total of 20 RPACT teams across the province, with 15 of those teams placed within RCMP detachments and five in city municipalities. In 2023, Drumheller RCMP responded to a total of 117 mental health crisis calls, and so far there seems to be a similar trend in 2024 with the detachment responding to 87 calls to date in 2024.
Cst. Iliescu shares the RPACT team will respond to various calls, which may include providing on-site mental health assessments and referrals to other community agencies.
Ms. Davis adds with her connections with Alberta Health Services (AHS) and Recovery Alberta, this gives the RPACT team additional access to patient records in conjunction with policing information to better determine the individual’s needs.
“If it’s just health care responding, we don’t have that piece if there’s any safety concerns, so to have that partnership is really important,” Ms. Davis shares.
She notes this is beneficial when addressing calls where a person may have an extensive mental health record, but may have never had a criminal record, and can assist in providing the right referrals and resources or determining if a Form-10 mental health apprehension application is necessary.

Strathmore man charged in fatal collision

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On Jan. 6, 2024, at approximately 11:45 p.m., Drumheller RCMP, Emergency Medical Services and local Fire Departments responded to a 2 vehicle head-on collision on Hwy 9 near Range Road 214, west of Drumheller. Preliminary investigation indicated that a pickup truck and a car collided on the highway. The driver of the car, a 39-year-old male resident of Drumheller, was pronounced deceased at the scene, and the female passenger of that car, a 33-year-old female resident of Drumheller, was taken to hospital via ground ambulance. The driver of the pickup truck, a 50-year-old male resident of Strathmore, was taken to Drumheller Hospital with non life threatening injuries.

After an extensive investigation, and with assistance from the RCMP Collision Reconstructionist and RCMP Criminal Collision Investigation Team, on Nov. 19, 2024, Drumheller RCMP arrested 50-year-old Sean Powell, a resident of Strathmore. He has been charged with the following:

Impaired operation of a conveyance;
Operate a conveyance over 80 mg/%;
Impaired operation of a conveyance causing death;
Impaired operation of a conveyance causing bodily harm;
Operate a conveyance over 80 mg/% causing death;
Operate a conveyance over 80 mg/% causing bodily harm;
Dangerous operation of a conveyance causing death;
Dangerous operation of a conveyance causing bodily harm;
Refuse to provide a breath sample causing death; and
Refuse to provide a breath sample causing bodily harm.

Powell was also subject to Alberta Immediate Roadside Sanctions which included suspension of drivers licence. He was released from custody and is scheduled to appear in the Drumheller Alberta Court of Justice on Dec. 20, 2024, to answer to the charges.


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