South Africa's power crisis shuts down mines across country

Powerblackouts inSouthAfrica caused by flash flooding have shutdownmining operationsacrossthecountry, several mining companies said on Tuesday.

Harmony Gold, Impala Platinum, and Sibanye-Stillwaterall said they had been forced to cut production since Monday owing topowershortages.

"There are very few undergroundminesthat operated overnight and will be operating normally today," said a spokesman for the Minerals Council, an industry body.

Add WION as a Preferred Source

Eskom said on Tuesday it planned more load-sheddingaSouthAfrican term for plannedpowercuts due to flooding that has interrupted coal-firedpowergeneration, but added thecrisiswas manageable.

Heavy rainsacrossparts ofSouthAfrica have submerged whole neighborhoods, leading to mass evacuations.

The losses to mining output a mainstay ofSouthAfrica'sexports highlights the economic impact of thecrisisat ailing state utility Eskom, which has been struggling to keep the lights on for more than a decade.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has made turning Eskom and other failing state firms around a cornerstone policy, but he faces opposition from unions and interests within his ruling African National Congress.

"The ongoing load shedding is devastating for thecountry causing our economy great harm and disrupting the lives of citizens," he said in a statement on Tuesday.

"The energy challenges in thiscountrywill not be resolved overnight."

On Monday thecountrysufferedpowercuts of up to 6,000 megawatts (MW) after heavy rain and flooding triggered failures at its 4,800 MW Medupi coal-fired plant.

Harmony Gold called off its underground shifts, saying it would resume as soon as Eskom could provide assurancepowersupply would be more reliable. Impala Platinum had shut production at its Rustenberg and Marulaminesowing topowercuts that left it functioning at 20 per cent-30per centof normalpower.

A spokesman for the platinum miner said: "We certainly can't risk any attempt at production with this level ofpower."

Sibanye-Stillwatershut all its deep-levelmineson Monday but aimed to send miners back underground for the afternoon shift on Tuesday.

"The outlook for this week is to maintain load shedding because of the weather, because of the coal handling challenges that we've got. Also, we have a number of units on the unplanned breakdownthat need to return," Eskom's chief operations officer Jan Oberholzer told eNCA news channel.

"We believe it is a manageablecrisis," Oberholzer said. "Four thousand megawatts of the problem we had yesterday was due to flooding."

Problems at Eskom have been magnified by delays and cost overruns at two giant coal-fired plants, Medupi and Kusile, which were touted as a solution topowerwoes when construction began a decade ago.

SouthAfrica'sGDP shrank by 0.6 per centin the third quarter, the second contraction this year, partly in response to uncertainty overpowersupply.

Its credit rating is teetering on the brink of junk because of its economic problems and the high cost of government bailouts of failing state firms. All credit rating agencies but Moody's have cut thecountry's rating to below investment grade.