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Samancor mulls power station plan Posted: Wed, 09 Jul 2008 [miningmx.com] -- SAMANCOR Chrome and Hernic Ferrochrome are considering ways to offset South Africa's power deficit with the former investigating building a coal-fired power plant. Hernic wants to build a co-generation plant using waste gas as an energy source. Speaking on the sidelines of Metal Bulletin's Ferroalloys conference in Johannesburg today, Juergen Schalamon, Samancor Chrome CEO, said the group could be joined in building the plant by a number of joint venture partners in the ferrochrome industry. The ferroalloys industry, which produces its metal through smelting, is an energy intensive industry. Currently, the industry is rationed to about 90% of smelting capacity following mandatory power cuts by electricity utility, Eskom. The energy deficit is reducing the ability of ferrochrome producers to expand. "The talks are at very early stages," said Schalamon of the power plant. "We have to put our heads together to see if it makes sense as ferroalloy producers to build our own coal fired plant, preferably in South Africa." Initial talks have taken place with "a desktop study" due to be completed in about three months, he said. In another move aimed at beating the power crunch, Hernic is working with Bio Therm Energy, an independent power producer which is building a co-generation plant using the waste gas from Hernic's operations near Brits. Click Here to subscribe to our daily newsletter
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