Goldfields halts Ghana mine operations after directive from EPA

Goldfields announced July 26, 2012 that it has suspended operation of all Heap Leach facilities at the company’s Tarkwa mine unit in Ghana.

This follows a directive the company received from Ghana’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop discharging water from its Heap Leach facilities at the Tarkwa Gold Mine.

The miner said it suspended the operation since July 16, 2012.

“To comply with this directive, the operation of all Heap Leach facilities at Tarkwa has been suspended since 16 July 2012,” Goldfields confirmed in a statement.

But despite this, the company said “there has been no material impact on production to date”.

According to Goldfields, the EPA directive further requires that all water discharges from the mine’s Heap Leach facilities should be treated through a water treatment plant to reduce conductivity levels. Conductivity is a measure of the amount of dissolved salts in discharged water and is classified internationally as a non-toxic pollutant.

Gold Fields said it believes that its Tarkwa Mine was complying with the prescribed conductivity levels in its water discharges, but is nonetheless conducting “further investigations” to validate this.

However, in pursuit of environmental best practice and world class environmental stewardship, and to comply with the directive, Gold Fields has commissioned the construction of two water treatment plants at Tarkwa’s North and South Heap Leach facilities.

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

By Ekow Quandzie