Statement on Brumadinho Tailings Dam Failure

RNS Number : 2024O

Harvest Minerals Limited

28 January 2019

 

Harvest Minerals Limited / Index: LSE / Epic: HMI / Sector: Mining

28^th January 2019

Harvest Minerals Limited ('Harvest' or the 'Company')

Statement on Brumadinho Tailings Dam Failure

Following the tragic accident on Friday afternoon at Vale's Feijão iron ore mine at Brumadinho, Minas Gerais, the entire Harvest Minerals team in Brazil and UK send our sincere condolences to the relatives of the missing and deceased at this terrible time.

In response to queries from shareholders, Harvest does not produce any waste material and therefore does not require any tailings disposal. This incident is therefore also unlikely to impact our application for a full mining license.

The Company takes the Health and Safety of all our staff exceptionally seriously and since the project started on 7^th January, 2016, we have had zero Loss time injuries and have been operating for 1,115 days without any accidents.

Harvest's Executive Director, Luis Azevedo, issued the following statement on Friday in his role as President of the Associação Brasileira de Empresas de Pesquisa Mineral (ABPM): "Faced with the tragic accident at the start of today in Brumadinho at the Vale Mine in Minas Gerais, I present on behalf of ABPM our most sincere solidarity with the relatives of the victims of this serious accident.   I also present to Vale, its directors and employees, our solidarity."

*ENDS*

For further information please visit www.harvestminerals.net or contact:

Harvest Minerals Limited	Brian McMaster (Chairman)	Tel: [phone]
Strand Hanson Limited Nominated & Financial Adviser	James Spinney Ritchie Balmer	Tel: [phone]
Arden Partners plc Joint Broker	Tim Dainton Paul Brotherhood Paul Shackleton	Tel: [phone]
Shard Capital Partners Joint Broker	Damon Heath	Tel: [phone]
St Brides Partners Ltd Financial PR	Isabel de Salis Gaby Jenner	Tel: [phone]

Notes

Harvest Minerals (HMI.L) is a Brazilian focused fertiliser producer advancing the 100% owned Arapua Fertiliser Project, which produces KPfértil, a proven, multi-nutrient, slow release, organic, MAPA-certified remineraliser.  KPfértil offers many economic and agronomic benefits and addresses the significant demand for locally produced fertiliser in Brazil, with its abundant agricultural land; currently, the country imports 90% of the potash it uses but has a target to be self-sufficient in fertilisers by 2020.  Covering 14,946 hectares and located in the heart of the Brazilian agriculture belt in Minas Gerais, Arapua is a shallow, low cost mine with an indicated and inferred resource of 13.07Mt at 3.1% K₂O and 2.49% P₂O₅.  This is based on drilling just 6.7% of the known mineralisation, leaving significant upside potential. This resource is equivalent over 29 years' production and the known mineralisation expected to support 100+ years' production at 450,000 tonnes per annum.

 

END

 

 

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