After one of its open-pit walls collapsed last week, the famous Cullinan mine in South Africa has been temporarily closed as Petra Diamonds runs a risk assessment at the mine, Mining Weekly reports.
According to Petra, a thunderstorm on October 26 had resulted in a “notable scaling of the sidewall” of the open pit over the weekend, as well as on Monday, October 28. About three-million tonnes of material fell into the open pit, which has been closed 50 years ago. Cullinan, it must be noted, is a wholly underground operation.
The risk assessment, Petra said, aims to “thoroughly inspect the underground workings for any anomalies […] before allowing operations to continue”. Petra added that it doesn’t expect the incident “to have a material impact on production”.
