Jessie Mine builds $1,2m slimes dam Benson Matemba (left) explains the slime dam lining construction works underway at Jessie Mine during a media tour organised by EMA in Gwanda yesterday while EMA officials and journalists from various media organisations follow proceedings
Benson Matemba (left) explains the slime dam lining construction works underway at Jessie Mine during a media tour organised by EMA in Gwanda yesterday while EMA officials and journalists from various media organisations follow proceedings

Benson Matemba (left) explains the slime dam lining construction works underway at Jessie Mine during a media tour organised by EMA in Gwanda yesterday while EMA officials and journalists from various media organisations follow proceedings

Marvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
JESSIE Mine in Gwanda District is constructing a $1,2 million slimes dam and lining it to prevent the pollution of both underground and surface water by mining effluent.

Environmental Management Agency (EMA) in Matabeleland South has commended the mine for undertaking the project.

Jessie Mine is the first company in Matabeleland South Province to embark on such a project in compliance with Statutory Instrument 6 of 2007.

According to the instrument, “No person shall dispose general waste or hazardous waste at any other place except in a licensed general landfill. With effect from the date of publication of these regulations, all new solid waste sites shall be lined with appropriate (as approved by the Agency) lining specific to the nature of the environmental risk, whether it is industrial, domestic, mining or any type of solid waste.

“No person shall continue to use an unlined solid waste site for more than five years from the date of publication of these regulations”.

The project manager, Benson Matemba of Blonton Management Consultancy revealed that the total cost of the construction of the slimes dam at Jessie Mine was around $1, 2 million.

In an interview during a media tour organised by EMA at Jessie Mine on Monday, Matemba said the project would cover five hectares of land.

“So far we’ve only covered half of the area with the lining. We’re relining the plastic in phases while the mine is doing some progress so that it’s also cost effective to the mine because to do the whole slime dam needs a huge budget,” he said.

A High Density Polyethylene (HDP) plastic was used in the process.

The mine manager, Gideon Ncube, said the lining of the dam was a new system in terms of the rehabilitation of the dump.

“It’s a good thing that in the province we’ve become the pioneers to comply with the lining of the dump which is meant to prevent the pollution of underground water,” he said.

In 2013, Jessie Mine was issued with an order to line its dump in compliance with the instrument.

In complying with the order and statutory instrument, the mine submitted lining proposals to the agency and they were advised to submit an addendum to their environmental management plan.

While they were working on the new lining paperwork no work was being done on the ground in accordance with the regulations.

EMA provincial environmental education and publicity officer Sithembokuhle Moyo applauded Jessie Mine for undertaking the project in compliance with the law.

“The project that is going on at Jessie Mine is very good for us as the agency. Lining of the slimes is very important.

“All mines should line their slimes so that there is no possibility of any ground water contamination. We’re very happy about this project and what is good to note is that Jessie Mine is a small-scale mine. It goes to show other miners out there that it is possible to line slime dams,” she said.

Moyo said there were a few mines in the province that were undertaking similar projects and progress was slow.

The provincial spokesperson said the agency had its monthly programme to test ambient water in designated areas.

EMA provincial environmental technician Samson Nyimai said lining of slimes dams was critical as treating contaminated water was a difficult process.

“Lining is a requirement where we are saying there should be sub straight or impermeable layer that would otherwise contain any water that is separated from the sands which would inhibit any seepage to ground water. It’s very important in the aspect that we tend to reduce ground water contamination which is very difficult to treat once it gets contaminated,” he said.

There are so many types of lining that can be adopted such as HDP plastic lining or the compacted clay.

Monitoring boreholes are put in place within the saturation zones to keep checking if water quality was not compromised.

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