Windhoek
Dundee Precious Metals (DPM) Tsumeb says it is spending in excess of N$4 billion on upgrading the copper smelter to world class standards, including an acid plant which will reduce sulphuric acid emissions by 95 percent.
This includes the much-publicised N$2.7 billion sulphuric acid plant that is expected to severely reduce emissions, which Dundee says are irritants, not toxins. The company also noted that since purchasing the smelter it has reduced occupational arsenic exposure in excess of 60 percent across the plant and said it is maintaining these levels within recognised safe limits.
DPM also vehemently denied a recent media report which claimed that several former employees are suffering from cancer and skin conditions as a result of exposure to sulphur dioxide or sulphuric acid from the smelter.
The report referred to an environmental and health audit of DPM in Tsumeb, but DPM’s spokesperson, Alina Garises, yesterday emphasised that the health audit report by the government, which was conducted in conjunction with a team of environmental and occupational health specialists from the United Nations Development programme, found no burns from sulphuric acid exposure or other smelter activities.
“The survey found that some individuals are sensitive to high concentrations of sulphur dioxide and this can irritate pre-existing respiratory conditions, such as asthma. The environmental survey did find significant breaches of international sulphuric acid emission levels and confirmed the requirement of an acid plant to deal with these,” said Garises.
Interestingly, DPM noted that the health survey of over 1700 past and present Dundee Precious Metals employees and residents by independent qualified medical uncovered no deaths caused by the smelter’s activities, past or present.
“The survey found no smelter attributable cancers. The health survey identified four cases of cancer that were contracted before those individuals joined the company,” explained Garises. She added that the survey found no skin cancer related to any activities at the smelter and found no burns from sulphuric acid exposure or other smelter activities.
During 2011 government instituted a technical audit of the smelter over alleged environmental damage and human poisoning as a result of the smelter’s operations.