Contaminated dam ‘dewatered’

SOLOMON ISLANDS – The process to empty the tailings dam at a closed gold mine in Solomon Islands has begun after a long wait.

Operations at the Gold Ridge mine were suspended in 2014 after it was found to have an extremely high level of contaminated water in its tailing dam following flash floods.

Since the mine’s closure, there have been numerous warnings that toxic sludge from the dam could overflow and harm communities downstream.

Australian company Saint Barbara sold the mine, about 40 kilometres from the capital Honiara, to local landowner firm Gold Ridge Community Investment Limited (GCIL) last year for $100.

GCIL secretary Ben Afuga told the ABC the company obtained government approval to release treated water from the dam.

“Actually we were planning to do dewatering yesterday or today, but because of the heavy rain it actually forced the company to start the dewatering on Tuesday,” he said.

“According to the condition of the licence we applied for 45 days, and in that 45 days we expect to dewater one metre of the water level.”

Saint Barbara shut down the Gold Ridge mine during flash floods in April 2014 that killed 21 people and left 50,000 others homeless.

A team of United Nations specialists was sent to assess the stability of Gold Ridge’s tailings dam, and local authorities declared the area a disaster zone.

Afuga said there was “overwhelming” community support for the dewatering programme at the dam.

“People feel that the dewatering is more safer than if the dam collapses and breaks,” he said.

“We have had a lot of people thanking us for what we did, starting on Tuesday, and we look forward to the downstream communities continuing to give us the support to accomplish the 45-days dewatering programme.”

- ABC