www.miningmx.com | mining_fin Fresh power woes rattle SA miners

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Fresh power woes rattle SA miners
Allan Seccombe
Posted: Tue, 18 Mar 2008

[miningmx.com] -- SOUTH African power utility Eskom has not contacted any of its major mining clients about potential power outages, a number of companies said on Tuesday after an Eskom spokesman said if a couple more generators failed power could be cut.

Eskom spokesman Andrew Etzinger told Radio 702 that nine generators are out of order and if there were any further problems with generators the power provider could declare force majeure, limiting supply to its 138 large industrial users, including the mines.

In a later news bulletin, Etzinger said three of the nine generators should be back in service by Tuesday afternoon. �Between now and then it�s an extremely tight situation,� he said.

an extremely tight situation

Under an agreement with Eskom, mining companies must be given four hours notice if Eskom is unable to provide power, giving the mines enough time to bring their workers to safety from underground.

�If we lose an additional two generators in the course of this morning we could possibly once again be in a force majeure situation," Etzinger told Reuters. "It's really critical at the moment."

The gold shares took a beating on the news, with the sector down 2.5% on the JSE. The general mining index fell nearly three percent.

Two of the country�s largest gold miners, AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields, both said they had not yet been informed of any power disruptions by Eskom.

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�We�ve not heard anything from Eskom,� said Gold Fields spokesman Andrew Davidson.

�We said yesterday (Monday) we are at 95% of normal power consumption at Driefontein and Kloof and that�s still the case this morning,� he told Miningmx.

�If there�s going to be any change in supply they�d let us know, if we were going down to 90% or so,� he added.

AngloGold�s Alan Fine said� �From the people I�ve spoken to is there�s been no communication from Eskom.�

Eskom declared force majeure on 25 January, shutting the mining sector for a week. That lost production pulled the country's gold output nearly 17% lower in January compared to the same month a year earlier.

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