After unprecedented rainfall forced its closure, Evolution Mining has resumed mining activities at Ernest Henry in Queensland.
North-west Queensland was hit by torrential rainfall in early March, forcing residents to evacuate and mines to close across the region.
Among the impacted mines were 29Metals’ Capricorn copper mine, New Century’s Century mine and Austral Resources’ Lady Annie operations.
The Lady Annie operation was the first to reopen after the rain eased, followed by the Capricorn copper mine.
Now, over a month later, Ernest Henry has similarly reopened.
“Evolution is pleased to advise that the Ernest Henry operation has safely resumed mining activities and will continue to safely ramp up activities to reach normal production levels by the end of the June quarter 2023,” the company said in a statement.
“The weather impact at Ernest Henry will result in lower gold and copper production of approximately 17,000 ounces and 10,000 tonnes respectively in FY2023 whilst gold and copper production in the March quarter was reduced by 6,400 ounces and 4,100 tonnes respectively.”
Surface maintenance scheduled for the June 2023 quarter at Ernest Henry was brought forward amid the rain damage.
“Whilst this significant weather event that occurred at Ernest Henry last week has suspended operations, our priority has been to ensure all personnel are safe, including as we move to the recovery phase,” Evolution chief executive officer and managing director Lawrie Conway said at the time.
“The team on site has handled the situation in accordance with our incident management protocols. We expect the recovery phase to take approximately 6 weeks before ramping up to normal production.
“The business performance in the March quarter has been solid with our cash position better than planned. This provides adequate coverage to handle the impact of this incident at Ernest Henry.”