At Barrick, we believe that every person deserves the fundamental right to clean, potable drinking water. This principle has been ingrained into our sustainability strategy, aligned with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all.
Creating a World-Class Water Treatment Operation
At North Mara, our most significant water management project was our transformation of the Tailings Storage Facility (TSF) which is designed to store waste materials from our mining operations.
In 2019, we launched a multi-year, comprehensive effort, with the close collaboration and support of the local government and community representatives, to manage water on the North Mara Gold Mine TSF, develop a world-class water treatment plant and to enable safe and efficient water storage and drainage. This was one of our first commitments to the Government of Tanzania and to local community members: to restore the Mine’s TSF pond water volume back to its permitted design capacity by the end of 2021.
At the time under the previous management, the Tanzanian National Environmental Management Council (NEMC) had closed the TSF, citing neglect and excessive water levels that posed serious environmental risks such as tailings seepage, possibility of local water contamination and even the facility’s potential collapse.
Before / The TSF at North Mara was holding significantly more water than it should when Barrick took over control of the mine.
Now / After a herculean effort, the badly neglected TSF is now in line with international best practice as well as Barrick’s own tailings management standards.
Staying true to our word, since 2019 we’ve invested over $65 million into our water management, including studies to confirm the safety of community potable drinking water, world class treatment plants, and in the TSF rejuvenation to bring it in line with international standards and meet NEMC’s deadline.
By December 2021, we exceeded expectations, increasing the mine’s water treatment plant’s capacity 16-fold, from 2.5 million liters per day to 40 million liters per day. We also built a world-class brine treatment plant facilitating safe and efficient water storage and drainage. Importantly, we dramatically reduced the size of the TSF pool from 7 million m3 to below 60,000 m3.
The water treatment plant at North Mara
These efforts have not only addressed the NEMC’s and local communities’ legacy concerns but have also extended the TSF’s operational lifespan. Barrick is not alone on this journey, with the local community participating in every step along the way.
We remain committed to rigorous water monitoring and collaborate with local authorities and our communities to monitor and analyse drinking water wells and surface water sources in the North Mara vicinity. We do this through our Community Participatory Monitoring – community members and other local stakeholders can undertake water samples themselves and follow the sample through the monitoring process, including receiving the water quality results.
Providing Community Access to Clean Water
Twiga, Barrick’s flagship partnership in Tanzania with the Government of Tanzania, has invested in landmark projects to provide access to quality healthcare, educational facilities, potable water and alternative sources of water.
As part of this commitment to providing access to drinking water, Twiga has partnered with the Tarime district’s Rural Water Supply and Sanitation Agency (RUWASA) on a comprehensive project to build a water storage tank at North Mara. Through this effort, Phase 1 of the Project provides clean and reliable water to over 35,000 residents in the neighboring villages of Mjini Kati, Matongo, Nyabichune and Nyangoto, with expansions to the Project in planning.
Some highlights of this project include much easier and reliable access to drinking water, a reduced burden for community members who previously had to walk far distances to get clean water and significantly improved hygiene in local businesses, schools and residences.
We have already begun construction to extend our water project with RUWASA to an additional seven villages.
Malando Masheku, RUWASA Manager in Tarime, noted how the project “guarantees people in the area the availability of reliable, clean and safe water, thus protecting them from contamination of waterborne diseases.” In addition, Tulinumpoki Mwakalukwa, Mara’s RUWASA Regional Manager, shared how the water sources of Mara River inside the Mine are treated according to the country’s standards before being distributed to residents.
During an inspection of the project, Abdalla Shaib Kaim, Leader of the Uhuru Torch Race for 2023, also expressed his confidence in the investment, saying that “after inspecting the documents and the actual infrastructure, we got convinced that the value for money aspect was taken seriously in the project execution. It met the standards of water projects and has true value for money.”
We truly believe in creating long-term value and sharing economic benefits with our host communities and that access to clean, reliable water is a fundamental human right. Through these initiatives, we have transformed challenges into triumphs at North Mara, enriching the lives and wellbeing of thousands of people in the community.