Catoca says no heavy metals in tailings leak that turned DRC river red

Angola's Catoca diamond mine, a joint venture between Angolan State diamond company Endiama and Russia's Alrosa, said no heavy metals were found in a July tailings leak, which turned a river red and killed large numbers of fish downstream in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Reuters quoted Catoca as saying in a statement that the leak only contained rocks and clay from a tailings basin, which altered the oxygen levels in a tributary of the Congo river.
The DRC government had claimed that there was a toxic spill that killed 12 people and made thousands of others ill.
It also said that it would demand compensation from Catoca for the incident.
"Samples taken from wide-ranging sources by independent laboratories confirm that at no point have there been any heavy metals present in river water flowing from the tailings basin," said Catoca.
"By September, the oxygen levels were returning to normal."
The diamond miner said it sealed the pipe rupture with three new dykes by the end of July.
Test results of samples taken by researchers at the University of Kinshasa in Congo's capital are yet to be published.
The DRC government has since banned communities along the Tshikapa river from fishing or drinking from it, which affected more than 950 000 people.

Mathew Nyaungwa, Editor in Chief of the African Bureau, Rough&Polished