coal fuel shortages dire for africa

Are we starting to see the cracks turn into fissures in Africa? Ultimately caused by resource shortages namely energy ...

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Contributor Jim writes:
Wet coal mines and 7,000oz's a day goes off line. Essentially you can't send men down a shaft if you can't be sure that the elevator and ventilation will work. Seems that South Africa is hitting "Peak Load" where any ripple in the fuel supply slows things down more than they'd like.

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Harmony, AngloGold, Impala, Gold Fields halt S African ops on power shortages
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LONDON (Thomson Financial) - South African mining companies Harmony Gold Mining Company Ltd, AngloGold Ashanti Ltd, Impala Platinum Holdings Ltd and Gold Fields Ltd have all halted operations after the country's national power utility, Eskom, said that it could not guarantee today's power supply.

In separate statements, all four companies said they have suspended South African mining operations due to this crisis.

Eskom requested its key industrial consumers to reduce consumption to the minimum load possible for the next two to four weeks. "According to Eskom, the current situation arises from reduced generating capacity aggravated by problems associated with coal supplies to power stations caused by unusually heavy rainfall," AngloGold said in a statement.

Gold Fields chief executive Ian Cockerill said the suspension of its operations, which produce about 7,000 ounces of gold per day, will hurt its gold production.

In its statement, Impala Platinum said it has cancelled the day shift at Impala Rustenburg, but added that operations at Marula will continue normally, unless load shedding is applied.

The company said the impact of this stoppage is around 3,500 ounces of platinum per day.

Meanwhile, Harmony Gold cancelled its morning and afternoon production shifts, but said the night shift is on standby awaiting further news from Eskom regarding power supply.

Eskom has not yet indicated how long the present situation will continue.

AngloGold Ashanti said it is in contact with the electricity supply body.

At 11.55 am, shares in AngloGold, Africa's biggest gold producer, were down as much as 7.32 pct to 291.00 rands on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange, while Gold Fields' shares tanked nearly 10 pct to 107.00 rands.

Impala Platinum shares fell 4.38 pct to 237.15 rands on the JSE.