‘Freak storm’ hits production at Westgold mine

12th February 2018 By: Creamer Media Reporter

JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Heavy rainfall on Saturday night has halted production at Western Australian miner Westgold Resources’ Central Murchison Gold Project (CMGP), in the Murchison goldfields near Cue and Meekatharra.

Nearly 200 mm of rain fell in the region in about two to three hours, forcing the closure of the Bluebird mill and creating flooding in mines.

The “freak storm” had resulted in the flooding of the Paddy’s Flat underground mine, the newly started Jack Ryan underground mine and nearby openpit mines, Westgold reported in a statement on Monday.

“The passing wall of water, often over one metre deep, drenched some electrical circuits and overflowed bunding, which was designed to contain spills.”

“This is yet another storm this summer that has impacted the operations over the past month. Other storms, while disruptive, have not resulted in a halt, but rather impacted mine production. This one, dumping a years’ annual rainfall in a few hours, will cause the operations to be impacted,” said MD Peter Cook.

He added that the CMGP should be “up and running again relatively quickly”, but noted that the company would lose about a week’s production and that its output for 2018 would be 300 000 oz.