BGL spends $17m on Prestea Underground Mine

Prestea (W/R) Feb. 27, - GNA- Seventeen million dollars have so far been spent on maintaining the underground mine of New Century Mine (NCM) at Prestea.

Mr. Sam Agyeman, Underground Mine Manager of NMC said this when he accompanied pressmen to Level 30 of the underground mine at Prestea. Level 30 is 4,500 feet below the earth's surface. At that level, workers were busily clearing the drives after removing loose rocks to make the place conducive for mining. According to Nicholas Kanji, a Mine Captain, his crew had reached a place called "219 cross cut" since they started cleaning about two months ago.

He said, "we have not encountered any problem".

Narrating the incident leading to the flooding of the underground Mine, Mr. Agyeman said in 2004 there was a heavy downpour amidst lightening which resulted in power cut.

Power to the Mine was cut for about 12 hours so the pumps could not work, the pump became full, and the main pumping station at level 30 could not work, hence the flooding.

He said new pumps were bought and some of the old ones were overhauled, adding that the Mine intends to buy another pump that would pump from level 30 to level 17 and then to the surface.