Power failures have had a significant impact on mining production, the Chamber of Mines of South Africa said on Thursday.
The chamber said the statistics released by Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) on Thursday showed a 10,7% year-on-year drop in the volume of mining for January.
This drop in volume was led by the large decline in deep-level mining production. Gold production dropped by 16,5% and platinum-group metals dropped by 15,9% in January this year.
Total mining production in January 2007 increased by 1,7% which highlights the extent of the 10,7% decline recorded in January 2008, the chamber said.
Export had also been affected by the drop in mining production. South Africa’s trade deficit was R10,2-billion for January 2008 due to the decline in mining production.
”The consequences of the January 25 to 31 shutdown, plus the curtailment of electricity supply to 90% of normal demand, has had a most deleterious impact on the large deep-level mines, since the impact on production has generally been larger than the reduction in electricity supply,” said Mzolisi Diliza, chief executive of the Chamber of Mines.
The chamber and its members have been active in structures established to deal with the electricity supply problems. This included Eskom task teams, the national electricity response team and the presidential working group.
”What is manifestly clear is that all electricity users have an important role to play in reducing demand to create the space for limiting disruptions to the electricity market while the supply-side build programme takes shape,” said Diliza.
”But the improvement in the energy efficiency of the economy is also meant to help create the space for growth in investment over the next five years,” he said.
The chamber would continue to seek solutions to the power supply problems and called on other electricity users to do the same. – Sapa