Newcrest Suspends Cadia Gold Mining After Dam Wall Collapse
12 March 2018 - 9:36AM
Dow Jones News
By Rhiannon Hoyle
SYDNEY--Newcrest Mining Ltd. (NCM.AU) said it expects to
downgrade annual production and cost targets after suspending its
Cadia gold operation in eastern Australia because part of a
tailings dam wall collapsed.
Newcrest said there was "a limited breakthrough of tailings
material," a slurry of finely ground rock, water and some benign
processing reagents, when the northern tailings dam embankment
burst at Cadia on Friday. The spillover was contained in the
southern tailings dam, said the miner, which added there were no
injuries and that it hasn't seen any environmental damage as a
result of the collapse.
Newcrest by Saturday had fully suspended all mining and
processing at the operation, 250 kilometers west of Sydney.
"Whilst it is too early in the evaluation and recovery process
for Newcrest to provide an indication of the extent to which
fiscal-year 2018 production, capital and cost guidance will be
impacted, this event will adversely impact guidance for fiscal-year
2018 given the contribution of Cadia to the overall outcomes of
Newcrest," said the company.
Cadia is one of Newcrest's biggest mines, accounting for roughly
one quarter of group gold production last fiscal year. Newcrest had
been projecting group output of 2.4 million-2.7 million troy ounces
of gold in the year through June, 2018.
It said cracks had been noticed in the dam wall during a routine
inspection earlier Friday and that it had stopped depositing
tailings into both dams as a precaution. "No further movement of
the wall has been detected since Friday night," Newcrest said.
The miner said it is looking at possible repair options for the
collapsed section of wall, and that it's also reviewing alternative
tailings locations including the old Cadia Hill open pit.
Newcrest also said it is working closely with regulators on a
review of the incident.
- Write to Rhiannon Hoyle at rhiannon.hoyle@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
March 11, 2018 18:21 ET (22:21 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2018 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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