Barrick Gold fined over $430 Thousand for releasing sewage to the environment

By Osoro Nyawangah, MWANZA Tanzania

Barrick North Mara gold mine has been subjected to pay a fine of One billion Tanzanian shillings ($430,477.83) by the National Environment Management Council (NEMC) for releasing sewage in the receiving waterbodies used for domestic by the surrounding community.

The Director General of NEMC, Samwel Gwamaka, told reporters that section 187 of Environment Management Act gives him powers to fine an amount of 50 million to 10 billion shillings to any entity releasing sewage or low-quality water to the environment.

“We have subjected the Barrick gold mine company to pay a fine of one billion shillings as a punishment to them and a lesson to other entities or individuals releasing sewage or low-quality water to the environment.” He said adding that his council shall continue with regular auditing of the environment in the area.

The Minister for Minerals, Dotto Biteko, said that the mine which is co-owned by the Barrick Gold (84%) and Tanzania government (16%) has obligation to show good example of complying with laws of the land and that the sewage release was due to gross negligence.

“It doesn’t make sense that the pipe burst happened at 9 o’clock and the management is informed at 12 noon! This is gross negligence that is not acceptable, we work to upkeep the welfare of our people.” Biteko said.

Following the negligence, the Minister ordered withdrawal of government’s Mining Officer stationed at the mine.

In its statement, the Barrick gold management confirmed that the mine has experienced an uncontrolled release of low-quality water to the environment following the unexpected failure of a water transfer pipeline along the haul road between the Gokona and Rama operations.

The Barrick group Sustainability Executive, Grant Beringer, although the volume of water released was minor, the North Mara environmental team immediately sampled the receiving waterbodies.

“The preliminary water quality results show that there is no immediate impact on the receiving waterbodies and no risk to the community or the aquatic biodiversity of the river.” Beringer said, promising to continue sampling over the next days and report the data to the authorities and communities,” he said.

The North Mara gold mine is located in north-west Tanzania in the Tarime district of the Mara region. It is around 100 kilometres east of Lake Victoria and 20 kilometres south of the Kenyan border.

North Mara started commercial production in 2002. The mine is a combined open pit and underground operation from two deposits, Gokona (underground) and Nyabirama (open pit). The process plant has the capacity to process an average of 8,000 tonnes of ore per day.