A tailings storage facility which plagued recent operations at Newmont Mining’s Telfer goldmine has been remediated, the project’s aspiring owner Greatland Gold has told the London market.
Greatland is in the process of acquiring Telfer from Newmont in a $700 million deal announced earlier this month, pending conditions including the remediation of the previously leaking facility.
WorkSafe issued two prohibition notices to Newmont over Telfer’s operations in May, relating to two tailings facilities – TSF7 and TSF8.
In a release to the UK market late today, Greatland revealed TSF8 started to accept tailings again early this week, after a Department of Energy, Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety block was lifted on the facility.
The conditions precedent to the deal require the tailings facility to run for a 14-day period – a target not yet met.
“… [W]hilst the conditions precedents have not as yet been satisfied in full, significant progress has been made towards their satisfaction,” the company said.
“Greatland congratulates Newmont on this important achievement and the restart of processing and tailings deposition, which is the result of significant work and a robust approach taken by the Newmont team to investigate and resolve the TSF8 issues.”
Greatland chief executive Shaun Day told Business News when the deal was struck that the company felt the project was in its best shape in nearly two decades, with a large stockpile of around 30 million tonnes of mined ore ready for processing once the facility was remediated.
Work has been ongoing to fix the facilities since April.
No update was provided on TSF7 in the release. No clause relating to TSF7’s remediation was included in conditions precedent to the deal being done.
Greatland remains on track to acquire the project in the fourth quarter of this year, alongside Newmont’s 70 per cent stake in the nearby Havieron gold project.
Andrew Forrest-backed Greatland hopes to use the existing infrastructure at Telfer to process ore from Havieron once it’s developed.
