SKORPION Zinc Mine and refinery at Rosh Pinah in //Kharas region and Mine Workers Union of Namibia (MUN) have announced that the mine will go into care and maintenance by the end of April.
In a statement issued on Friday, the mine said several failures with the latest occurring in January 2020, had paralysed a significant portion of the open cast mine, leading to the decision.
The failures, the statement states, would result in an ore gap of more than 10 months.
However, it added further technical studies have indicated existence of similar failures at depth.
"The safety of our employees being our first priority, a decision has been taken to cease all mining operations while studies into possible feasible mining options are investigated,”the statement reads.
The mine management said the decision to place the mine on care and maintenance will affect about 1 500 employees.
"Skorpion Zinc and the MUN branch will continue to engage in line with Section 34 of the Labour Act, Act 22 of 2007 and on basis of existing agreements,”the statement reads.
The latter section pertains to the reduction of the workforce arising from the re-organisation or transfer of the business or the discontinuance or reduction of the business for economic reasons or technological reasons.
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