Extracted, processed and refined
The miners at the Neuhof-Ellers plant extract around four million tonnes of potash salts containing magnesium and sulfur from the southern part of the Werra-Fulda deposit annually, with a valuable material content of more than 30 percent.
Thanks to over one hundred years of experience in potash mining, the mine's operating procedures are sophisticated and largely mechanized. This not only enables us to be competitive in terms of productivity, but is also a prerequisite for the highest level of occupational safety.
In the factory, potassium-, magnesium- and sulfate-containing valuable materials are extracted from the crude salt and processed into standard and specialty fertilizers in a wide variety of products to meet demand.
By combining various processing stages, up to 1.4 million tonnes of products are produced annually.
On the way to the customer
The finished products are stored in one of the plant's storage facilities, which have a total capacity of 300,000 tonnes. For shipping, they are stored with special conveyors, so-called scrapers, and made available in storage silos for the bulk loading of railcars and trucks.
The daily loading capacity at four track and four truck loading points is up to 7,000 tons and guarantees the fast delivery of larger quantities. The majority of the products manufactured at the Neuhof-Ellers potash plant are sent to the customers by rail - in an environmentally friendly manner. An important port of call - especially for overseas shipments - is the Kalikai in Hamburg. There, the products from Neuhof are loaded onto large ocean-going vessels, which start their journey from there to destinations all over the world.
Certified: since 2009 "Systematic Safety"
The Neuhof-Ellers plant has already had its occupational safety organization certified three times by the BG RCI (German Employers' Liability Insurance Association for the Raw Materials and Chemical Industries) and has been awarded the coveted "Sicher mit System" ("Systematic Safety") seal of quality since 2009.
The "GUT DRAUF" program, which began in 2013 and has been successfully established at the Neuhof-Ellers potash plant since then, has been certified by the Federal Centre for Health Education (BZgA). "GUT DRAUF" is a cooperation between the plant and the BZgA to promote the health of trainees. The aim of this project is to make health an integral part of training. For this reason, the plant's young employees receive offers on healthy nutrition and adequate exercise.