EPA orders Iduapriem Mine to stop using tailings storage facility

Accra, March 9, GNA - The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has ordered AngloGold Ashanti (Iduapriem) Limited (AAIL) to stop using its 'tailings storage facility' at Iduapriem and Teberebie for non-compliance with best practice regarding the storage of waste material containing sodium cyanide. The Company operates a surface mine in the Tarkwa-Nsuaem Municipality of the Western Region of Ghana and processes ore using Sodium Cyanide and other chemicals via Carbon in Leach (CIL) method for gold. The waste material in the form of slurry from the processing operations is stored in a 'tailings storage facility'.

A release from EPA on Tuesday said as part of its Environmental Performance and Public Disclosure programme dubbed 'Akoben' it discovered some operational challenges faced by AAIL resulting in non-compliance with best practice regarding the operations of tailings storage facility. "The EPA, therefore, in a letter dated 4th August 2009, directed the Company to stop the use of the tailings storage facility within six months and in line with Section 13(1-4) of Act 490, December 1994, the EPA issued an Enforcement Notice to AAIL to undertake the following: "Cease the deposition of tailings material into Blocks 2 and 3 tailings storage facility by 11th February 2010 and or any other area/site unless otherwise permitted by the EPA and subsequently, remove all tailings discharging facilities. "Submit to EPA, a comprehensive report on water requirement within one month from the date of the enforcement notice and to provide within one month from the date of the enforcement notice an Action Plan for treatment of excess water to meet EPA's Sector Specific Effluent Quality Guidelines for discharge into water bodies.

The Company was also to engage a third party acceptable to the EPA to conduct independent requisite studies with regard to surface and ground water quality within the catchments communities and submit monthly reports to the EPA and directed, in the interim, to initiate action to assess and augment the potable water needs of the catchments communities within two months from the date of the enforcement notice. The release said EPA further directed that AAIL should prepare and submit a Decommissioning and Reclamation Plan covering Blocks 1, 2, and 3 Tailings Storage Facilities.

The plan should include among other things schedule of rehabilitation, proposal on end use(s) and cost estimates. The plan must be submitted within three months from the date of the enforcement notice. The Company is to prepare a report on displaced farmers from Teberebie community as a result of AAIL's operations with requisite strategic interventions (land for land) within four months from the date of the enforcement notice and report on the assessment of all affected buildings/structures that have experienced cracks one month from the date of the enforcement notice and commence repair works by 15 April 2010. Prior to the August 4, 2009 directive, the Company was requested in September 2008 to submit an application to obtain an environment permit to construct a new tailings facility that will last till the end of the mine.