Story by Tapiwa Machemedze
RAN Mine has resumed operations in Bindura after the completion of the environmental decontamination process and enactment of safety measures ordered by the Environmental Management Agency (EMA) Wednesday night.
This was a result of the slimes dam breach at the mine last month.
EMA Mashonaland Central Environment and Publicity Officer, Mr Maxwell Mupotsa, said the civil protection unit met on Wednesday afternoon and assessed public safety measures put in place by the mine.
“After continuous works done by Ran Mine to ensure such a calamity would not happen again, we have seen the directive ordering them to halt operations being removed after they met conditions of the order, comprising pollution abatement measures, safety ponds, and the need to change the slime dam using the old one which is away from the public so we are satisfied as an agency with the works done by Ran Mine,” Mr Mupotsa said.
The mine has pledged to continuously upgrade safety measures and collaborate with EMA and the civil protection unit beyond the measures it undertook.
“We did a community clean up and we also proceeded to rehabilitate this dam, putting several cut off drains using area topography and additional rehabilitation of the dam so that it meets the requirements of EMA and satisfaction of community. We have since resumed operations last night,” Ran Mine manager, Mr Brienie Dzumbunu said.
The environmental catastrophe and subsequent two-week work stoppage negatively impacted production at the mine, with an estimated 15 kilograms of gold being lost.
