HARMONY Gold said on Tuesday it had halted work on its Eva copper project in Australia’s Queensland state after identifying a protected species while clearing the site.
The Johannesburg-listed gold miner approved the $1.55bn to $1.75bn Eva project in November saying it expected it to yield 50,000 to 60,000 tons of copper a year. It also estimated a three-year construction period.
Commenting in a production update, CEO Beyers Nel said the company paused clearing activities “while we engaged with regulators, environmental specialists, government stakeholders and other interested parties to determine the appropriate way forward”. The company had “reprioritised certain activities,” he added.
The species is a blue-tongued skink, a type of lizard, that is native to Australia, Indonesia, and New Guinea. There are 380 to 400 species of skinks in Australia, making them the largest family of lizards in the country, according to Australian Geographic.
Mining projects are rarely halted in the event of protected species but their discovery can lead to delays. Sibanye-Stillwater had long-standing problems trying to win approvals for its US Rhyolite Ridge lithium/boron project owing to the discovery of a rare buckwheat. However, the most infamous encounter between South African mining ambition with fauna was Gold Fields’s repeated attempts to relocate the endangered short-tailed chinchillas at its Salares Norte project in Chile.
Despite this, Nel said Harmony had made significant progress elsewhere in the Eva project. The company had secured long-lead equipment and awarded major projects. “The project is moving forward … Construction activities are continuing, including work associated with the process plant and related infrastructure.”
In its update, Harmony said it was on-beam to meet production guidance for the year of 1.4 to 1.5 million ounces of gold. Underground recovered grades of about 5.80 grams per ton and all-in sustaining costs were also within guidance, it said. This is the eleventh consecutive year the group has met its key production forecasts.
In addition to Eva, Harmony acquired the CSA copper project, also in Australia, with a view to increasing production to about 40,000 tons a year within the next three years. Commenting on the mine, Nel said it would meet the upper end of expected production of 17,500 to 18,500 tons of copper. As a result, cash costs would be below guidance and recovered grades above guidance.
“These results provide tangible evidence of the value we saw in acquiring a high-grade, producing copper asset in a tier-one jurisdiction, while diversifying revenue streams and broadening the Group’s earnings base,” said Nel.
