Alec Erwin, public enterprises minister
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SA govt to enforce better coal supply
Troye Lund
Posted: Fri, 25 Jan 2008

[miningmx.com] -- IF the standard of coal being supplied by mines to Eskom does not improve, the South African government will invoke special powers to force them to do this, said Minister of Public Enterprises Alec Erwin today at a briefing on how government planned to deal with the country’s electricity shortage.

Erwin stressed that government would do all it could to protect its strategic reserves and that this should not necessarily adversely affect the mining industry.

“In addition we are now experiencing serious problems with coal quality and stocks. We are engaging the industry to change this situation and we need to make it clear that should there be no rapid improvement we will not hesitate to use emergency measures. Poor quality coal and events like the current heavy rain create too great a risk for the system.

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“Frankly it is in the interests of the mining industry (to supply the correct quantity and quality to Eskom). If they do not give us coal they do not get power,” said Erwin who also announced a set of “quick hit” emergency measures to reduce consumption.

Erwin said that the poor coal supply was one of the factors that had caused the “unprecedented levels of unplanned outages”.

Talks between government and the mining industry are already under way. But Erwin left no doubt about the fact that there was no option about stepping up its supply to Eskom.