Maravi

Mines suspend production

Mines suspend production
Written by Staff Reporters
Wednesday, June 17, 2009 2:52:35 PM

SOME copper mines on the Copperbelt Province have temporarily suspended production due to inadequate and unreliable supply of electricity that resulted in the national blackout on Monday night following the failure of the Zesco sub station at Leopards Hill in Lusaka.

And Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) executive chairman Hanson Sindowe yesterday said the corporation's 80 mega watts capacity from its diesel generators to supply electricity to the mines was not sufficient to allow production but for emergency operations only.

Sources at both Mopani and Konkola copper mines, the country's biggest mines on the Copperbelt, disclosed that the mines stopped production immediately power supply was disrupted on Monday night.

"To safeguard machinery and equipment we were instructed to stop production around midnight because power was not reliable to continue operations since it was coming on and off and what is on standby through generators cannot support production," the source said.

Both Mopani chief executive Emmanuel Mutati and KCM corporate affairs director Rahul Khakar were reportedly holding meetings with their senior management and could not be reached for comment by press time.

But Chamber of Mines president Nathan Chishimba, who could neither confirm nor deny the shut down of production at some mines, said the national blackout had affected some mines but the extent of damage was not yet known.

He said the lack of reliable and efficient power supply would affect the attainment of the projected copper output of 600,000 metric tonnes for 2009.

"Anything that disrupts power affects the mines heavily and this [Monday] blackout affected some mines but I have not received full details of the extent or damage caused hence I cannot conclusively talk about this matter," Chishimba said. "But power is vital in mine operations and it is one of the major factors that must be constant [regular] if Zambia is to attain the scheduled copper production of 600,000 metric tonnes."

Sindowe said CEC could only provide power for emergency operations and not for mines' production.

"It is unfortunate that this incident has happened and we immediately provided 80 mega watts from our generators and we also imported over 100 mega watts from the DR Congo but this is not sufficient for production but just to allow smooth shut down of machinery and equipment and for ventilation and de-watering purposes," Sindowe said.

And the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) has engaged Zesco to establish the full extent of the causes and effects of the nationwide blackout that occurred on Monday around 20:00 hours.

"Preliminary indicators are that power outages occurred when one of the two 125 mega volt amperes transformers at Leopards Hill sub station caught fire and this is the main submission linking Kafue Gorge and Kariba North Bank Power stations to the rest of the Zambian power system," stated the ERB.

"The challenges faced during the night in restoring electricity supplies to consumers were as a result of low consumers which induced high voltages in the transmission lines and this had the effect of prolonged restoration times faced during the night from the time of the blackout."

Copperbelt University (CBU) students protested against the power blackout on Monday night.

Labels: CEC, COPPERBELT PROVINCE, MOPANI

posted by MrK @ 1:52 PM