PERTH (miningweekly.com) – Mining activities at the Ernest Henry gold mine, in Queensland, halted last week following heavy rains.
Gold miner Evolution Mining on Monday said that personnel were removed from the mine owing to water entering the mine workings, and operations were suspended. Re-entry into the mine was undertaken following the rainfall event to assess the impact of the event.
Evolution told shareholders that mining activities at the mine are expected to restart in six weeks, based on current planning and underground inspections.
“While this significant weather event that occurred at Ernest Henry last week has suspended operations, our priority has been to ensure all personnel are safe, including as we move to the recovery phase,” said CEO and MD Lawrie Conway.
“The team on site has handled the situation in accordance with our incident management protocols. We expect the recovery phase to take approximately six weeks before ramping up to normal production. The business performance in the March quarter has been solid with our cash position better than planned. This provides adequate coverage to handle the impact of this incident at Ernest Henry.”