The Sifto Canada salt mine in Goderich, Ont.
A lack of storage capacity is causing the layoff of about 80 people at the Sifto Canada Corp. mine in Goderich, Ont., a major producer of highway de-icing salt.
Communications manager Kelly Barton said Friday the mine has filled its storage depots, and that's forced the layoffs, which represent about a fifth of the mine's work force.
Sifto also is reducing its operations from seven days a week to five, the company said.
Ms. Barton said the layoffs were temporary and that most of the laid off employees would be called back in the second quarter of the year.
Ms. Barton said the company sends salt to areas that have not shared the relatively warm weather near the mine and that it's the storage problem that's caused the layoffs.
The salt from the mine is shipped by boat and when that can't be done, it is put in storage - and those storage depots are now filled, Ms. Barton said.
"It is not unique for us to slow down at this time of year," she said.
The Sifto mine employs about 400 people and produces road and highway de-icing salt for customers in the Great Lakes region.
Sifto and its U.S. parent are spending $70-million (U.S.) to expand the Goderich mine, already the world's largest underground rock salt mine, to meet growing demand. The upgrade will increase annual production capacity to about nine million tons by 2012.
Sifto is a wholly owned unit of Compass Minerals International Inc. , a company based in the Kansas City area.
The company, which employs more than 1,700 workers, also operates rock salt mines in Cote Blanche in Louisiana, and in Cheshire in the United Kingdom.