{"id":854,"date":"2015-03-13T13:59:08","date_gmt":"2015-03-13T02:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bnmme.com.au\/?p=854"},"modified":"2015-03-13T13:59:08","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T02:59:08","slug":"gemco-sees-ore-spill-during-cyclone-epa-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/2015\/03\/13\/gemco-sees-ore-spill-during-cyclone-epa-says\/","title":{"rendered":"GEMCO sees ore spill during cyclone, EPA says"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"GEMCO-sees-ore-spill-during-cyclone-EPA-says-660143-l_300\"<\/a>BHP Billiton\u2019s GEMCO operation has reportedly suffered four uncontrolled manganese spills following Cyclone Lam, the Northern Territory EPA says.<\/p>\n

The miner reported four manganese ore discharges at the site due to heavy rains caused by Cyclone Lam, the ABC reports.<\/p>\n

The cyclone hit the Northern Territory Coast as a category four, late last month, passing over GEMCO, the Ranger uranium mine, and Rio Tinto\u2019s Gove alumina site.<\/p>\n

According to the EPA the rains hit the stockpile, washing out a retaining wall, which allowed the manganese to discharge into the sea.<\/p>\n

“The discharge occurred during a period [of] very high rainfall during a cyclone,” NT EPA head Bill Freeland said.<\/p>\n

“The circumstances of that we are still investigating.”<\/p>\n

He went on to say that discharge poses no environmental concern.<\/p>\n

“This thing gave way during heavy rainfall repeatedly, the things that came out were manganese concentrate, which is manganese dioxide. It’s pretty insoluble and sank to the bottom,” he said.<\/p>\n

This is not the first time the mine has suffered an accidental spill.<\/p>\n

The miner accidentally dumped two tonnes of manganese iron ore into the sea at its port facility in 2010.<\/p>\n

At the time, NT Resources Minister Kon Vatskalis stated: \u201cTo their credit GEMCO immediately reacted and they put a container under the conveyor belt and also dredged the area where the manganese was dumped into the sea.\u201d<\/p>\n

However he did voice disappointment the incident was not reported for nearly a week.<\/p>\n

Regarding the most recent spill, Freeland said investigations are ongoing.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got be careful about what you do. You can’t just say ‘you’ve been negligent or terrible or anything like that’,” he said.<\/p>\n

“You’ve got to really investigate and find out what happened.”<\/p>\n

Freeland went on to applaud GEMCO\u2019s quick reporting of the incident.<\/p>\n

Under their existing licensing arrangements, they have to notify us of any untoward thing, any incident, anything contrary to the license … and that’s what happened,” Dr Freeland said.<\/p>\n

“They’re dutiful people and they provided the information we looked for.”<\/p>\n

GEMCO is not set to remain a BHP company for much longer, having been flagged to be spun out in the upcoming demerger, and placed in the new entity South32.<\/strong><\/p>\n

BHP has been contacted for further comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BHP Billiton\u2019s GEMCO operation has reportedly suffered four uncontrolled manganese spills following Cyclone Lam, the Northern Territory EPA says. The miner reported four manganese ore discharges at the site due to heavy rains caused by Cyclone Lam, the ABC reports. The cyclone hit the Northern Territory Coast as a category four, late last month, passing … Continue reading “GEMCO sees ore spill during cyclone, EPA says”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mines-and-quarry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p83F9T-dM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8943,"url":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/22\/cyclone-technologies-for-efficient-size-mass-and-density-based-separation\/","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":0},"title":"Cyclone technologies for efficient size mass and density-based separation","author":"yinghui","date":"March 22, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Multotec Group of Companies 41,497 followers March 22, 2025 Ernst Bekker, Product Specialist \u2013 Cyclones, for the Multotec Group, talks to MechChem Africa about hydrocyclones and dense medium cyclones: how they work, their different applications and some of things to look at and to avoid for best possible separation, production\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Clients"","block_context":{"text":"Clients","link":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/category\/clients\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1241,"url":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/2016\/01\/25\/nearly-400-jobs-go-at-woodie-woodie-mine\/","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":1},"title":"Nearly 400 jobs go at Woodie Woodie mine","author":"yinghui","date":"January 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Approximately 380 workers jobs have been cut as Consolidated Minerals place the Woodie Woodie mine in care and maintenance. Workers were informed of the decision late last week, which will affect the 330 FTE and 50 contractors on site, according to the ABC. The miner blamed falling manganese prices as\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mines and Quarry"","block_context":{"text":"Mines and Quarry","link":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/category\/mines-and-quarry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1170,"url":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/2015\/12\/11\/bootu-creek-manganese-to-close\/","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":2},"title":"Bootu Creek Manganese to close","author":"yinghui","date":"December 11, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Production crews at the Bootu Creek manganese mine have been laid off as the mine is placed into care and maintenance. Around 45 workers have lost their jobs at the Northern Territory mine, which was staffed by 200 people, mostly FIFO workers. The redundancies were reported to the ABC by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mines and Quarry"","block_context":{"text":"Mines and Quarry","link":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/category\/mines-and-quarry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"3226_2006_Bootu-Creek-Manganese_high-res-1","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bnmme.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/3226_2006_Bootu-Creek-Manganese_high-res-1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1243,"url":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/2016\/01\/25\/another-manganese-operator-enters-administration\/","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":3},"title":"Another manganese operator enters administration","author":"yinghui","date":"January 25, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"The third Australian manganese operator in two months has closed operations as the commodity price falls. Shaw River, owner of the Otjozondu manganese project in Namibia, has entered voluntary administration \u201cas a consequence of low manganese ore prices\u201d, which halved in 2015. It follows fellow Australian companies OM Holdings \u2013\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mines and Quarry"","block_context":{"text":"Mines and Quarry","link":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/category\/mines-and-quarry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"shaw","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bnmme.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/shaw.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":948,"url":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/2015\/08\/19\/epa-recommends-new-bhp-iron-ore-pit\/","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":4},"title":"EPA recommends new BHP iron ore pit","author":"yinghui","date":"August 19, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"BHP are carrying on their relentless drive for investment in a depressed iron ore market, with development of a new open pit near Newman. The project known as Orebody 32 Above Water Table has received recommendation for approval from the Environmental Protection Authority. The project will be a conventional open\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Mines and Quarry"","block_context":{"text":"Mines and Quarry","link":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/category\/mines-and-quarry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"whaleback","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.bnmme.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/whaleback.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":7960,"url":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/2021\/04\/27\/records-rain-on-south32-in-2021\/","url_meta":{"origin":854,"position":5},"title":"Records rain on South32 in 2021","author":"yinghui","date":"April 27, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"By Henry Ballard Illawarra Metallurgical Coal. Image: South32 South32 has met or exceeded production expectations across its Australian operations, not allowing inclement weather to diminish a strong March quarter. Worsley Alumina, in which South32 owns 86 per cent, is on track to achieve nameplate capacity of 4.7 million tonnes at\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Clients"","block_context":{"text":"Clients","link":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/category\/clients\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dszs098s1om2l.cloudfront.net\/australianmining.com.au\/2020\/06\/25093537\/South32-illawarra-metallurgical-coal-604x270.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dszs098s1om2l.cloudfront.net\/australianmining.com.au\/2020\/06\/25093537\/South32-illawarra-metallurgical-coal-604x270.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dszs098s1om2l.cloudfront.net\/australianmining.com.au\/2020\/06\/25093537\/South32-illawarra-metallurgical-coal-604x270.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yinghuiinternational.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}