KENMARE RESOURCES has stopped production at its Mozambique titanium mine after an incident there flooded part of a nearby village and led to the disappearance of a four-year-old girl.
The Irish mining company’s shares plummeted in Dublin and London yesterday following the news. It closed 12.7 per cent off at 19.2 cent, while it shed 18 per cent in London to close at 17.2p.
Kenmare said its priority was the search for the child, finding accommodation for those affected and rehabilitating the parts of the village, Topuito, that were damaged as a consequence of the flood.
A spokesman said only one house in the village was destroyed, but about 40 per cent of the village has been hit, as between six and 12 inches of water flowed through Topuito. About 115 households were affected.
The company’s managing director, Michael Carvill, travelled to the mine in Moma and said everything would be done to locate the missing child and support the people affected.
The incident happened during the early hours of yesterday morning. Water backed up in the second of three ponds used to clean sand and clay from which titanium ore is extracted. The retaining wall gave way and a combination of water and mud flowed from the facility into the village, which is about 300m away.
The company uses two dredges to mine at Moma. The titanium ore is extracted from the sand using a concentration plant, and the waste sand and water is then processed through the three settling ponds and re-used.
Kenmare has halted production and was not in a position to say when it would resume operations. The company has a month’s worth of stock built up and a spokesman said it anticipated returning to production before that is exhausted.
The company is bringing in experts from South Africa to inspect the site and has also pledged to investigate the incident and to co-operate with any inquiry undertaken by the authorities in Mozambique.
The accident happened less than a month since Kenmare was included in London’s benchmark FTSE 250 index, a development that it believed would broaden its shareholder base and help boost its value.
The Moma mine came into full production in the closing months of last year.
The company’s efforts to bring it to that point were delayed by problems with a contractor.
