[miningmx.com] — MERAFE and Xstrata’s chrome venture will temporarily
shut down another two of its 20 furnaces in an extension of its power buy-back deal
with Eskom, losing an additional 30,000 tonnes in production over the next two
months.
The additional two closures will be at the venture’s Wonderkop and Lydenburg
smelters until May 31. As a result, a total of seven of the venture’s 20 furnaces would
be closed until that time, following an announcement in February that four furnaces at
Rustenburg and another one at Wonderkop would be kept out of action.
“The additional two temporary furnace closures . will have a net positive economic
impact for both the venture and Eskom, and will not result in job losses at these two
furnaces,’ noted a Merafe statement.
The total loss in production from the closures is estimated to be 130,000 tonnes.
Eskom has made similar deals with Ruukki, International Ferro Metals and Samancor
in a bid to create sufficient margin on its power grid while it takes power stations
offline for maintenance work.
Eskom is using the buy-back scheme to source allocation at a higher rate than what
these users would’ve paid for supply, but less than the cost of generating electricity
with gas turbines.
Eskom CEO Brian Dames said earlier this year it cost the parastatal 38c for a standard
power station to generate a unit of electricity, while power produced by the open-
cycle gas turbines cost close to R1.40 per unit.
Eskom spokesperson Hillary Joffe told Miningmx the power utility has already
secured 800 MW so far in savings from heavy users. It was looking for savings of
3,000 MW across the economy. “Our agreements are based on the companies not
losing jobs and being able to deliver to their customers,’ she said.
