Charlotte Mathews
30 January 2008
Johannesburg — SOUTH African mines would start to return to normal by the end of the week, as 80% of their power would be restored today, increasing to 90% by Friday, said power utility Eskom and the government yesterday.
The total financial effect of the industry shutdown on lost mineral sales, suppliers to the industry, capital expenditure , salaries, wages and taxes was about R1,8bn a day, said Chamber of Mines CE Mzolisi Diliza.
Mining companies, including Gold Fields, Impala Platinum and AngloGold Ashanti said they would ramp up to normal production once they had 90% power, though AngloGold said it was not yet able to quantify the operating and financial effects of the power crisis .
All underground work at SA's major mines was halted last Friday, after Eskom experienced an acute power shortfall, causing gold companies' share prices to drop, and gold and platinum prices to soar. Nonetheless, Chamber of Mines president Sipho Nkosi, also CEO of Exxaro Resources, said Exxaro had not stopped planning its multimillion-rand capital programme. "We are going full-steam ahead. This is a temporary situation."
By the weekend, most mines were operating at 50% of normal power, which was not enough to mine underground, but at least enabled them to secure the safety of underground workings, through pumping and ventilation .
Diliza said that once the mines were restored to 90% power, it did not mean every mine would operate at 90%. The mining companies could spread their agreed 10% power-saving across operations.
One of the issues raised by the task team was the importance of Eskom's communicating with the mines, Diliza said. It was agreed that, given the time needed to evacuate underground workers safely, Eskom would give the mines at least four hours' notice of power interruptions in future.
Eskom CE Jacob Maroga said a huge reduction in power supply could not be expected from the coal mines, because they were supplying the power stations. The effects of energy shortages on the oil refineries would also have to be considered.
Although it was reported earlier that the government could divert SA's coal exports to Eskom stations, Maroga said it was a question of price. "We have a price expectation and there is a volume available at that price. It may well be that if ... security of supply is threatened, and exports threaten that, there could be ways we (would) deal with it."
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