[miningmx.com] – ANGLOGOLD Ashanti and Sibanye Gold, the company spun off from Gold Fields, lost a combined R481m in revenue following a power outage in the West Wits region, said BDLive, an online publication.
AngloGold said it stood to lose 20,000 ounces of gold at its Mponeng and Tau Tona mines after lightning struck a sub-station resulting in an outage that lasted from March 13 to March 15. Sibanye Gold would lose 12,646 ounces of gold in production.
Some 300MW of power had been restored by Eskom which has endured a difficult few months amid strike action at Medupi, its 4,800MW new build which is supposed to start generating electricity from December.
There are doubts as to whether the power station will be commissioned on time, however. Not only has the strike action delayed Medupi, but welding problems on its boilers have also held up progress.
Citing Nomura economist, Peter Attard Montalto, BDLive said South Africa’s mining sector was heading for a renewed round of rolling blackouts similar to the ones in 2008 which saw the industry grind to a halt for a week.
“The electricity supply situation is extremely tight. We think the risk of load shedding is the highest since the start of 2008,” said Montalto.
While electricity demand has been about 4% lower since last year, “the scale of maintenance and unplanned outages, especially as a percent of peak demand, is very high”, he said.
Other mines in the area are served from different substations and are not affected. Kloof, a Sibanye’s mine, is close to Driefontein and was unaffected, company spokesman James Wellsted told BDLive.
