Gold Fields loses 15,000 ounces of gold during EPA suspension

Gold Fields said August 10, 2012 it has resumed operations at its Ghana Tarkwa gold mine heap leach facilities after the country’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lifted the temporary suspension on those facilities August 9, 2012.

Gold Fields suspended operations at all Heap Leach facilities at the company’s Tarkwa mine unit since July 16, 2012 following a directive it received from the EPA to stop discharging water from the facilities.

“Tarkwa reopened both the North and South Heap Leach facilities on the evening of August 9, 2012 after they were closed on July 16, 2012 to comply with an EPA directive,” the miner said in a statement.

“The estimated impact on gold production as a result of the temporary closure is around 15,000 ounces, which is less than 10% of the mine’s quarterly production,” it said, but indicated that the Carbon-in-Leach plant in Tarkwa, which produces about 75% of the gold at the mine, was not affected.

Although Gold Fields believes that Tarkwa was complying with the prescribed conductivity levels in its water discharges, it has nonetheless commissioned the construction of two water treatment plants at the heap leach facilities.

The plants are expected to be operational before the end of 2012, the company said.

By Ekow Quandzie