Orvana Minerals Corp. (TSX: ORV) (the “Company” or “Orvana”) announces that a rock fall has occurred at a legacy open pit wall at El Valle. The fallen material impacted the east sector of the Tailings Storage Facility (“TSF”), without structural damages. No individuals were harmed, and no environmental damages have been identified.
Juan Gavidia, CEO of Orvana Minerals stated: “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”.
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. The Company is working, with dedicated internal and external teams, to design a definitive geotechnical wall treatment for the long term, now that the district road has been finally relocated.
Underground facilities are unrelated to the legacy open pit wall, so mining activities continue operating under normal conditions. 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.
Mining Authorities were duly notified as a matter of course. The Company will provide further updates as material developments occur.
