The Trans-Caledon Tunnel Authority (TCTA) and Gold One Group subsidiary Newshelf have signed a memorandum of agreement (MoA) to improve the availability and reliability of the Eastern Basin acid mine drainage (AMD) plant.

Under the MoA, the Gold One subsidiary will procure and deliver the critical equipment, such as submersible motors and spare parts, for exclusive use at the AMD plant by TCTA.

TCTA will be responsible for installing and maintaining the equipment, which will be delivered to the AMD plant in October and operational by November.

“The Eastern Basin AMD plant has not been able to treat acid mine water since February owing to the failure of pump motors. This has affected TCTA’s ability to abstract water from the Eastern basin, thus, resulting in the increase in the AMD level within this basin,” explains TCTA project management and implementation executive manager Johannes Mavuso.

The spare parts for the AMD pump motors were ordered in 2021; however, the supplier could not deliver them in time owing to the global supply chain challenges relating to the Covid-19 pandemic.

The first batch of spare parts was delivered in June 2022, which will enable the first AMD pump to be operational by August 2022 and a third of the AMD plant production capacity to be brought online by August 2022.

“TCTA is expediting the delivery of the remaining spare parts to ensure that the AMD plant returns to full production by late this year,” he says, stating that the TCTA is confident that operations at the AMD plant will revert to normal and its availability will improve through the assistance provided by the agreement.

The TCTA says it will take all reasonable steps to maintain the continuity of dewatering at the AMD water treatment plant.

“Through the partnership, TCTA and Newshelf will endeavour to ensure the continuous and stable operation of dewatering of the AMD plant within one month after the equipment has been delivered to TCTA.”

Further, the authority continues to monitor the AMD water levels in the basin and is expediting the implementation of the remedial actions to ensure that the decant level is not reached.

“Whereas the Environmental Critical Level of 106 m has been breached, with the water currently at 53.45 m, the situation has not reached the dangerous level of a possible decant, which is set at 25 m below the surface. As reported previously, the danger of a decant is predicted to be only around December 2022 if the situation were to remain the same,” states Mavuso.

“TCTA is delighted with this breakthrough. It appreciates and understands the frustration this has caused affected and interested stakeholders; however, this was an unfortunate situation that could not be avoided. The organisation commits itself to work tirelessly to ensure that it avoids similar incidents in the future,” he concludes.