Sibanye-Stillwater (JSE: SSW and NYSE: SBSW) announced on Friday that its Century operation in Queensland has been suspended due to a regional bushfire.

The company expects operations at its zinc project in Australia to remain suspended until mid-November.

While all workers and the main infrastructure at the Queensland site are reported safe, there has been an “extensive loss” of piping infrastructure. Orders for replacements have already been placed, the South African miner said in a statement on Friday.

Zinc output this quarter is expected to fall short by nearly 9,700 tons due to the stoppage, which will likely last until Nov. 16, according to the statement. Century produced 76,000 tons of zinc last year.

“This incident once again highlights the threat posed by climate change, which is leading to significant damage from extreme weather-related events worldwide,” CEO Neal Froneman said.

“This setback is unfortunate, considering the Century operation had recovered well after heavy rains affected Q1 2024.”

The Century zinc mine began open-pit production in 1999. Operations were placed on care and maintenance in 2016 after the depletion of the original open-pit reserves, following 16 years of producing and processing an average of 475ktpa zinc and 50ktpa lead concentrate.

The mine is expected to run out of ore in 2027 but indicated and inferred resources present an opportunity to extend operations beyond 2030.

Source: MINING.COM – Read More