Johannesburg - The situation at South Africa's gold mines has still not returned to normal as the current electricity shortages continue to affect production.
Production at the country's mines was halted on Friday after electricity utility Eskom could not guarantee supply to the mines.
Following high level meetings at the weekend, Eskom agreed to restore 70% of the mines' normal power needs today, but this is not enough for full operations, Business Day reported on Monday.
On Saturday, Minerals and Energy and Public Enterprises ministers convened a high-level meeting with the mining industry, Eskom and organised labour in Pretoria. The meeting was aimed at discussing electricity supply issues to the industry, and to develop immediate measures to enable mines that were closed during the week to reopen.
At the meeting a joint mining industry and government task team charged with the responsibility of looking at ways to rebuild in a stable way the supply of power to the industry was established. Its first meeting took place on Sunday.
Making mines safe
The meeting considered ways in which Eskom and the mining industry could collaborate to reduce sector demand by 10% and, simultaneously provide mines with confidence in an uninterrupted power supply, providing the necessary guarantees for workplace safety.
Ministers Buyelwa Sonjica and Alec Erwin agreed to an industry request that there would be sufficient power supply to enable employees to continue with essential underground operations, particularly in deep level gold mines, and to ensure the safety of the workplace for mineworkers.
Following Sunday's meeting, the mining industry was notified that Eskom could only supply sufficient power to put the mines in "safemaking" mode, according to a statement issued after the meeting by gold miner Harmony.
In addition, Eskom committed to giving the mining industry four hours prior notice of any impending blackouts.
"This situation is an improvement on the situation that existed in the past three days where no persons have been underground, except those on essential services," Harmony added.
Temporary rationing at Harmony
Harmony said it has temporarily agreed to power rationing and is to be supplied with 75% of its normal average consumption in order to secure and make its mines safe until Wednesday, when another meeting will be held to discuss the build-up plan. The possibility is that power supply could be increased from 75% to 90%.
"Harmony is presently strategising on how best to optimise our plants and operations with the amount of power we will be supplied."
Harmony's nightshift was scheduled to go underground last night and today to commence with making areas safe to resume production as soon as it is supplied with 90% energy. Elandsrand Gold Mine, which is currently Harmony's biggest safety risk mine, sent workers underground on Sunday morning to begin with cleaning and safemaking.
AngloGold Ashanti has said that it has agreed a process with
Eskom whereby it will give its normal guarantees for sufficient power for the company to undertake shifts from Sunday night for the purpose of re-establishing safe workplaces at each of the deep level underground mines in South Africa.
"The company is anticipating a ramp-up in additional power later in the week that should enable a phased return to normal mining operations," it said.
Emerging from the crisis?
"With respect to the immediate future, it is not yet possible to indicate with any certainty how long it will take the seven AngloGold Ashanti mines in South Africa to return to full production.
"This will be determined by the rate at which Eskom is able to increase supply to the mines without compromising the national grid and, importantly, how much work will be necessary at each operation to ensure that working places are safe following their unanticipated closure," it said.
Mark Cutifani, AngloGold Ashanti's CEO said: "I think that we are starting to emerge from a crisis that had the potential to undermine the viability of the South African gold industry. It is encouraging to see the government and Eskom acknowledge the industry and its importance to South Africa.
"As a company we have worked with Eskom to reduce energy consumption over the past four years. Together, we have already achieved significant success in reducing consumption and must continue to work together, as we seek, in the first instance, to re-establish safe work places in our deep level operations,
and, over the next few days, to start to return to more normal production practices," he added.
DRDGold has said that its operations at ERPM and Blyvooruitzicht mines were still suspended.
Gold Fields was not immediately available to provide an update at its operations.
- I-Net Bridge