/ 21 January 2008

Zambia power cut hits copper output, miners trapped

A nationwide power blackout in Zambia cut copper and cobalt production at some mines, damaging mining equipment and temporarily trapping hundreds of miners underground, officials said on Monday.

State media reported nearly 300 miners on night shifts at units of KCM and Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) were temporarily trapped in shafts for hours after power abruptly went off.

The power outage also caused partial flooding at Chililabombwe copper mine, a unit of Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), as water could not be pumped out, officials said.

Derek Webbstock, the Luanshya Copper Mines (LCM) chief executive officer, said operations at the mine were suspended after power went off while equipment was damaged.

”We lost a day’s production and that is 75 tonnes of copper and 89 tonnes of cobalt. Our net loss is $2-million because the switch and associated electrical equipment were damaged at the mine,” Webbstock told Reuters.

Officials said miners at KCM’s Chililabombwe and Mopani Nkana mines were trapped for several hours after the power disruption.

”We are still evaluating the consequences of the incident,” said Passmore Hamukoma, Mopani’s spokesman.

”The good thing is it happened on a weekend when our production is not very much. We also responded quickly to the [blackout] and there were no fatalities.”

Sam Equamo, KCM’s communications advisor, told journalists from state media that Chililabombwe mine suffered some flooding after water could not be pumped out due to the power failure.

Equamo also said KCM, Zambia’s largest copper producer, was assessing the amount of loss in production of copper and cobalt.

”The smelter and Nkana was damaged as a result of the power failure,” the state-owned Zambia Daily Mail quoted Equamo as saying.

Bwana Mkubwa Mine, a unit of Canada’s First Quantum Minerals, said it stopped copper production for 16 hours due to the power failure, but gave no details of the amount of loss in copper production.

The mines started normal operations after Zambia imported emergency power supplies from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Zambia Daily Mail said.

State power utility Zesco said it was investigating the cause of a power blackout, which left the entire country in darkness on Saturday night for several hours.

”We have started thorough investigations into the cause of the power failure,” Zesco managing director Rhodnie Sisala told reporters.

Officials say water utilities switched off pumps to protect them from damage as the capital Lusaka and most urban areas experienced water shortages into Sunday. – Reuters