A tailings dam at the Baia Borsa base metal mine in northwestern Romania has broken, sending more waste into the Tisza River, a tributary of the Danube.
Like the tailings dam at the Baia Mare gold project, operated by Australian-based Esmeralda Exploration, the dam at Baia Borsa failed when heavy rain, combined with additional runoff from melted snow, overloaded the dam’s capacity.
About 20,000 tonnes of tailings are believed to have entered the river; officials in Romania said that concentrations of zinc in the river had reached 16 times the country’s drinking water standard, and concentrations of lead about nine times. Reports did not indicate what those concentrations were, but World Health Organization standards for drinking water limit zinc to three parts per million and lead to 0.01 part per million.
Esmeralda Exploration has placed itself in voluntary administration to ensure protection from creditors and possible lawsuits. The tailings dam at its Baia Mare project, where gold was being recovered from tailings, failed in late January, sending about 100,000 cubic metres of wastewater with a cyanide concentration of up to 0.1% into the Somes and Tisza Rivers. Esmeralda owns 50% of the project, the Romanian government 45%, and private Romanian investors the rest.
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