DRDGold won’t rush Withok as tailings project slips to 2029

DRDGOLD is giving itself more time to develop its Withok tailings storage facility, saying the long-term importance and complexity of the project mean it cannot afford to rush its construction.Withok, one of the final project in DRDGold’s Vision 2028 programme, is now expected to be completed by the end of 2029.However, this will depend on receiving the required approvals by December this year.DRDGold said test drilling done at Withok found geological features that need extra  measures, beyond the standard liner, to prevent seepage and groundwater pollution.CEO Niël Pretorius said at the company’s results presentation that it had deliberately allowed more time to deal with the complexities at Withok.“We spoke about the complexity – the fact that there’s some underground geological features that we need to look into that need to be insulated from the facility over and above the liner that’s going to go in,” he said.“It’s not a simple process and therefore we’ve built in some additional time to do that.”The caution comes against the backdrop of the recent failure of Samancor Chrome’s Dikwena tailings storage facility near Brits.DRDGold did not draw a direct comparison with its own facilities, but Pretorius referred to the “unfortunate incident” and stressed the importance of adhering to prescribed safety practices.Managing throughputDRDGold has deliberately limited the amount of material being processed at its operations while it develops additional storage capacity, rather than putting excessive pressure on its existing facilities.“We are managing volume throughput because we need to manage our tailings dams very, very carefully in order to stay within the prescribed safety practice,” Pretorius said.Referring to the recent tailings incident, he added that seeing “things going wrong on a tailings dam” was “unimaginable” from DRDGold’s perspective.Withok is currently in the authorisation phase. DRDGold has completed the public participation process, while the design has been approved by the Dam Safety Office. Environmental, waste-management and water-use applications have also been submitted and the miner is hoping to secure the outstanding approvals by year-end.The immediate effect of Withok’s delay is limited. Without it, Ergo can continue processing about 1.65Mt a month.However, in the long term its role is more significant – Ergo will have to start reducing its throughput rate by 2030 if Withok is not available.Moreover, Withok will provide 310Mt out of the total of 430Mt required to deliver into Ergo’s future mine plans. Without it, Ergo’s tailings storage capacity is limited to not much more than the 120Mt provided by Daggafontein.Daggafontein received its first water in June and its first tailings in July. Its commissioning allows DRDGold to reduce the amount of material being deposited onto the mature Brakpan facility from about 1.65Mt tonnes a month to 900,000 tons.Pretorius said the company regarded its tailings facilities as setting a high standard for environmental containment.“If you want to show people what a tailings dam facility should look like from an environmental containment perspective, I do believe our tailings dams are benchmark-setting in the standards that are being maintained by the team,” he said.The post DRDGold won’t rush Withok as tailings project slips to 2029 appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com