Orvana Minerals has reported a rock fall at its legacy open pit wall at the El Valle project in northern Spain, and as a result has temporarily idled the plant.
Officials said there is fallen material that has impacted the east sector of the tailings storage facility, but no structural or environmental damages. Additionally, the company confirmed that no one was hurt.
“The legacy open pit wall sector, where the failure occurred, has been under review in the past, which caused the relocation of a district road running at the top of wall in question,” Orvana confirmed, adding that it is working with internal and external teams to design a definitive, long-term geotechnical wall treatment.
Mining continues at the site’s underground facilities under normal conditions. The plant facilities are also physically unrelated, except for tailings pumping circuits.
“A temporary stoppage of activities at the plant facilities has been implemented to assess for corrective measures related to the tailings pumping circuits. TSF’s east sector is also under review,” added Juan Gavidia, CEO.
“Once Safety and Environmental confidence assessments are reassured, Plant Operations should restart in the following days. Underground mining operations continues stockpiling ore until processing resumes.”
Source: Orvana Minerals