Williamson mine in Tanzania to resume next year
Works on the Williamson mine in Tanzania will resume in 2023. Petra Diamonds announced the mine will operate in mid next year.
Operations on the mine was halted after a dam breach that occurred earlier this month. The breach caused a release of 12.8 million cubic metres of water and tailings material that flooded nearby areas. By good chance, no injuries or fatalities were reported but neighbouring residential buildings were affected by flow of muddy waters. The government mobilized mine emergency response teams to the site.
Assessments
An after an assessment by a team of experts concluded there is a low risk of further failures of the mine’s TFS. They also warned of a possible breach of the New Alamasi water dam. The water and tailings material samples taken by the Tanzanian Government Chemist Laboratory Authority did not find dangerous chemicals and the ones detected were within normal parameters.
A 6-metre-high wall has since been built to close the breached wall area. Additionally as a precautionary measure, Petra’s Tanzanian subsidiary, Williamson Diamonds (WDL), has put up containment walls upstream and downstream of the New Alamasi water dam, while support for facility’s new wall is under way.
The mine was established in 1940 by Dr. John Williamson, a Canadian geologist, and has been continuous operation since then, making it one of the oldest continuously operating diamond mines in the world. Over its lifetime it has produced over 19 million carats (3,800 kg) of diamonds. A 2020 report by The Guardian said that high-quality pink diamonds from the mine could value up to $700,000 a carat.
Diamond mining operations at the Williamson diamond mine are composed of four distinct activities: mining of the pit, re-treatment of tailings to recover missed diamonds, and gravel mining both on the property and adjacent to the property where gravel has been alluvially deposited. The open pit mining and tailings re-treatment are the largest of the four operations. The mine employs about 1,100 staff, mostly Tanzanians.
