Simberi gold mine denies chemical spill

THE Simberi gold mine in New Ireland has denied there was any cyanide spill in the waters around the mining island last week, which resulted in the death of marine animals.
The management stated that the reports were wrong and “grossly irresponsible”.
“There was no cyanide spill and no impact on the marine environment because there were no tailings into marine environment.
“Production stopped last week but it would be grossly inaccurate to suggest it had any impact on marine environment because the small leak was onshore,” they said.
According to the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC), a small leak had occurred in one of the tailing mixing tanks on  March 1, two senior offices had flown to the mine site to investigate the report of a potentially serious environment incident.
Simberi Gold Company Ltd (SGCL) had notified the DEC of the leak and had immediately shut down the tailings plant to prevent any further loss of tailings.
The notification also reported that dead fish were found along the shoreline where the leakage had entered the sea.
The DEC officers were sent to investigate the incident and ensure that effective measures were being taken by the mine operator to control the situation and minimise any potential impacts in the surrounding area.
SGCL had also taken water samples and dead fish tissue samples from various locations in the vicinity of the leaks for analysis.
DEC had directed the mine to remain shut until the operator had provided a detailed report on the cause of the incident, its impacts on the environment and the measures they would implement to ensure there was no recurrence.
All necessary incident reports, and remedial measures are taken by the company to comply to environment permit conditions before the director of Environment is satisfied that the plant can safely resume operations.
The DEC report stated that they would re-visit the mine site to inspect the tailings plant and associated tailing restoration systems to check the operational integrity of the plant before its given the approval to resume operations.
SGCL yesterday reported that progress on the repairs of the tailings tank was going well and should be completed by the end of the day.
They are expecting the DEC team to visit them today.