BACTEC international Ltd will be conducting controlled demolitions on Stanley Common South of Sappers Hill on Friday March 9, 2012, said a spokesperson for the company.

The destruction will take place of around 60 items of unexploded ordnance from the 1982 War, that have been uncovered during the course of the recent land release programme on the Common.

It is planned that six to eight demolitions will be conducted throughout the day; however the activity will not disrupt traffic on the Stanley to Darwin Road.

Penguin News reported on Friday that the company had made excellent progress in the Falkland Islands with the programme; all minefields have been fenced and all of the remaining areas agreed in the contract to be searched have also been completed three weeks ahead of schedule.

The project has not been without its challenges however, BACTEC encountered nine fortified former Argentine positions which required slow and deliberate clearance of trenches, some of which were full of water and had to be emptied. A large number of un-fired ordnance was located in that area including M67 90 mm high explosive anti-tank (HEAT) ammunition, air to surface rockets, hand and rifle grenades and small arms ammunition.

Prior to this latest phase of land clearance, the British company BACTEC, and its team of de-miners from Zimbabwe, cleared minefields near Surf Bay to the East of Stanley and to the South West of Stanley.