‘Barrick shuts down water supply after uranium found at copper mine in Zambia’ 20 March 2024

Barrick Gold says it has found uranium in the drinking water of an open section of its Lumwana copper mine in Zambia, forcing it to halt the water supply and switch to other water sources for its workers in the section. The Zambian mine has become increasingly important to Barrick’s future. The Toronto-based company has announced plans for a US$2-billion expansion at Lumwana to create one of the world’s biggest copper mines, with construction to begin late this year and production from the project expected by 2028. Tests of drinking water in the mine’s Chimiwungo open section on Nov. 8 found a Uranium level of 0.037 milligrams per litre, exceeding Zambia’s maximum allowable limit of 0.03 milligrams, according to a statement by Barrick’s country manager in Zambia, Anthony Malenga.

…The company says it immediately stopped the supply of water to the work force in the affected area and switched to bottled water. On Feb. 20, the company began taking water from a municipal water treatment plant, allowing the bottled water to be discontinued, according to an internal memo seen by The Globe. Mr. Malenga, in a statement sent to a Zambian newspaper last month, said the employees were exposed to uranium for two days, but their exposure was “negligible due to both the duration and low concentration.” The calculated uranium exposure was “well below” the World Health Organization guidelines, he said. Barrick did not respond to questions from The Globe about how exactly the uranium entered the water supply, how many employees were affected and the uranium levels in the water supply before and after the Nov. 8 tests.

In a brief statement to The Globe, however, Barrick said the incident was isolated to a small part of the mine, caused no damage to anyone’s health and posed no risk to other employees, contractors or people in surrounding communities…Despite Barrick’s assurances about worker health after the uranium contamination, the incident led to a verbal clash between a trade union official and a company manager. The union official, Kelvin Chiwaya, who had worked in the mine for 11 years, said he was fired by the company in January after he accused the manager of misleading the employees. He is now suing the company for wrongful dismissal.