PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Gold miner St Barbara has agreed to sell its defunct Gold Ridge mine, in the Solomon Islands, for an undisclosed amount.
Operations at the Gold Ridge mine were suspended in April last year, owing to torrential rainfall and ensuing flooding. To date, St Barbara had been unable to resume production from the mine site owing to a number of reasons, including the presence of illegal miners at the site and infrastructure damage.
Since suspending operations, St Barbara had been preparing the processing plant for care and maintenance, while also repairing the water treatment plant and pumping stations for the tailing storage facility.
While the company called on the Solomon Islands government to act quickly in order to avoid an overflow of the tailings storage facility at the Gold Ridge mine, the government formally rejected the company’s proposal to discharge untreated water as well as the offer of A$1-million in funding for the construction of a water treatment plant.
As part of the sale negotiations, St Barbara had agreed to fund the manufacture and delivery of a replacement water treatment plant, which was likely to take up to four months.
The sales agreement also included five subsidiaries of St Barbara.
Completion of the sale was due to be completed on May 6.