Mining firm says girl hit by flood has died

KENMARE Resources has said a four-year-old girl missing since October 8 was now presumed dead after a flood of water, sand and clay from its titanium mine in northern Mozambique hit her village.

“The search continues, however the company and family, with whom we are closely liaising, are both now operating under the assumption that thelittle girl has been lost,” the Irish company said in a statement yesterday.

Dublin-based Kenmare said that of 388 housesaffected near its Moma titanium mine, 287 had now been repaired, cleaned and declared suitable for use.

It has also set up a compensation committee that includes government and village representatives.

Full mining operations, which include a dredging process, will not, however, start before November 8 when design changes to retaining walls surrounding ponds have been completed.

This month’s flood was caused when a settling pond overflowed after the inner wall of another pond collapsed.

The company also said it needed approval from the Mozambique government before dredge mining could restart.

In the meantime, Kenmare is extracting minerals from stockpiles but they are running out and it will soon have to start reprocessing material used in the early commissioning of its plant at the mine.

“The company expects this will result in a drop in recovery due to the volatility in grade of this material, but is not yet in a position to predict the exact extent,” it warned.

Shares in Kenmare, which lost as much as 25% on the day of the accident, in recent weeks had narrowed those losses to 8%.