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MWANA Africa Plc local gold mining subsidiary Freda Rebecca has completed the rebuilding its leach tank (No. 3) that was extensively damaged in an accident at the mine in February this year. “Mwana Africa is pleased to announce that the tank 3 rebuild programme at Freda Rebecca has now been completed,” said Mwana Africa.
This follows the damage tank 3 sustained in the leach tank incident reported in February.
The tank has since been successfully re-commissioned into the leach circuit and the leach circuit is now restored to its optimal operating configuration prior to the February incident.
A leach tank is used in metallurgical processes to extract and trace metals from ore. In this technique, ground ore is mixed with a reagent inside the tank to form a slurry, allowing for recovery of the metal.
Mwana chief executive Mr Kalaa Mpinga commented: “The installation of leach tank 3 brings the leach tank incident to a close with the leach circuit now being restored to its original configuration.
“I would like to express my appreciation for the work done by local management in collaboration with local authorities in dealing with the situation.”
The accident forced the company to suspend plant processing operations as it repaired the damage and put measures to restore safety before it could resume operations at the Bindura-based gold mining unit.
The interruption was a worrying issue for Mwana Africa as Freda contributed about 99 percent of its annual revenue in 2012 and 2013.
Five employees were affected by the leach tank accident and had to be hospitalised briefly as a precautionary measure on their health.
Mwana said the accident caused structural damage to the two leach tanks and this resulted in a discharge of contents onto the ground surrounding the tanks beyond the bunded containment area.
The firm treated the incident seriously as it regarded the health and safety of workers and the community where it operates as its highest priorities.
Mwana Africa said normal production throughput was only recommenced starting from April 1 2013, using tanks 1, 4 and 5 as leach tanks (rather than tanks 1, 2 and 3) supported by eight absorption tanks, to ensure minimum leach times required for full throughput.
The strategy worked as an interim measure, at full production, with as they focused on the work to get back to an optimal tank configuration of tanks 1, 2 and 3 as leach tanks with 10 absorption tanks.
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