Miner Sibanye-Stillwater has suspended operations at its Century zinc mine in Queensland, Australia, after a bushfire in the area.
The operations team have been able to protect the primary infrastructure at the Century operation, including the processing plant, hydro mine, airport, underground slurry pipeline and camp, Sibanye said in a statement on Friday.
However, there was extensive loss of surface piping infrastructure, including the feed and water lines that connect the hydro mine to the processing plant and other key service lines, it added.
Suppliers have been contacted and orders for replacement piping have been placed, it said, but due to the amount of piping required operations are expected to remain suspended until November 16.
As a result, the group expects production of zinc metal for the fourth quarter to be about 9,680 payable tonnes less than forecast.
The Century zinc tailings retreatment operation in Queensland, is the such operation in Australia and ranks among the top 15 global zinc producers worldwide.
The mine tailings mining and reprocessing operation is located at Lawn Hill, 250km northwest of Mount Isa in the Lower Gulf of Carpentaria in Queensland. The operations include a 304km, wholly owned and fully permitted underground pipeline to Century’s port facility at Karumba. From there a transfer vessel, the MV Wunma, transfers concentrate to export ships anchored in the Gulf of Carpentaria.
“This incident once more highlights the threat posed by climate change, leading to significant harm from extreme weather-related events worldwide,” said CEO Neal Froneman.
“This affirms our purpose of safeguarding global sustainability through our metals and the critical importance of resource stewardship and optimising scarce resources, including through reprocessing of legacy tailings facilities as is done by the Century operations,” he added.
“This setback is unfortunate considering the Century operation had recovered well after heavy rains affected the first quarter of 2024.”
Sibanye shares closed 3.4% higher at R18.62 on Friday.
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