Mining houses suspend operations

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milomak

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AngloPlat, AngloGold, Harmony, Implats, Goldfields

Electricity related issues if you hadn't guessed
 
JOHANNESBURG, Jan 25 (Reuters) - South Africa's three top
gold producers suspended production at all their mines in the
country owing to a power shortage that the government on Friday
termed "a national emergency".
AngloGold Ashanti <ANGJ.J>, Gold Fields <GFIJ.J>, and
Harmony <HARJ.J> said they has stopped all gold mining after
they were informed by state-owned power utility Eskom [ESCJ.UL]
that it could not guarantee power supply to their operations.
Shares in the companies fell sharply and gold hit a record
high of $916.90 an ounce after the news.
Click to expand...

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The world's biggest
platinum producer, Anglo Platinum <AMSJ.J>, has shut down
production at all its South African mines to reduce electricity
consumption as the country struggles with a massive power
crisis, spokesman Trevor Raymond said on Friday.
The world's second-biggest platinum miner, Impala Platinum
<IMPJ.J>, also said it had stopped operations at its largest
mine near Rustenburg and expected to lose 3,500 ounces of
refined platinum a day after the halt.
Click to expand...

There we go
 
but the MEC said the power cuts would not affect the economy,,,,,,,, f@#cktard :mad:


why is this not headline news?
 
Afflicted State-owned power utility Eskom on Thursday night requested mines in South Africa to reduce consumption to emergency mode only, mining companies confirmed on Friday.

Gold majors AngloGold Ashanti and Gold Fields and platinum giant Anglo Platinum all confirmed that underground production had been stopped.

Gold Fields spokesperson Willie Jacobsz said that it had halted underground production at all its South African mines and that the operations would only consume the bare minimum of power for survival. He added that meetings with Eskom would take place on Friday morning.

AngloGold Ashanti said that all mining and gold recovery operations had been halted and that only underground emergency pumping work was being carried out.

The world's largest platinum producer, Anglo Platinum' s Trevor Raymond told Mining Weekly Online said that it had not sent any miners underground on Friday, in order to reduce electricity demand.

"The decision to keep underground workers on surface will have an impact on productivity as well as on operating costs, but the decision was motivated by the need to put the safety of employees first," Chamber of Mines assistant adviser: techno-economics Dick Kruger said.

He added that it was not clear when the workers would resume their underground shifts but that the situation was being monitored.

http://www.miningweekly.co.za/article.php?a_id=125326
 
All this is music in the ears for our biggest mining competitors overseas. Now they can add "Guaranteed supply of Electricity" as another competitive advantage. This will damper mining investment big time!
 
One of the companies a mate of mine works for had to perform underground maintenance at the number 4 shaft at Goldfields this weekend. They were told this morning they won't be able to perform any maintenance this weekend.
 
That 10,000MW figure is scary. At least while our economy slows we can stay safe in the knowledge there is no lad shedding at present.
 
News on the wires is that industrial users wil be asked to trim down to survival levels or switch off totally for the next 2 - 4 weeks.
 
Given this seems to be a co-ordinated move between eskom and the mining industry, it seems to me there is the possibility that this might continue on an industry by industry basis where eskom and the relevant industries agree that day x is the day you shut down.

On the face of it, if eskom can keep to the schedules this is surely a better way of doing things then the whole country (read industrial users) don’t know when they will or will not have power.

i also assume that the decision would have been taken in conjuction with the unions.
 
dlk001 said:
All this is music in the ears for our biggest mining competitors overseas. Now they can add "Guaranteed supply of Electricity" as another competitive advantage. This will damper mining investment big time!
Click to expand...

It'll dampen all investment big time. Any chance of them using generators or is it just too expensive?
 
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