Electricity + Control March 2015

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ROUND UP LIGHT + CURRENT
Load shedding and the impact of the ongoing power crisis on South
Africa's mining and metal extracting sectors featured high on the
agenda during the 2015 Africa Mining Indaba. Industry leaders,
including periphery players such as precious metal refiners, are
worried and are hoping for a sustainable solution.
As South Africans were subjected to another week of load shed-
ding and insecure energy supply, the 20th Investing inAfrica Mining
Indaba opened its doors to over 7 000 business leaders, investors,
mining experts, and politicians from all corners of the planet.
Bernard Stern, chief executive officer and co-founder of Metal
Concentrators (MetCon), South Africa's largest independent pre-
cious metal refinery, said that various speakers voiced their worries
with regards to Africa's overall energy shortages and the impact of
this on mining activities.
Figures by theWorld Bank for instance showed that 1 to 3 Giga-
watts (GW) of electricity is installed in Africa each year. Stern says
that this is a fraction of the 6 – 7 GW of newly installed power ca-
pacity the continent needs per annum in order to achieve universal
access to electricity by the year 2030.
“Investors are worried, and a big concern among them has to
do with power,” said Credit Suisse mining analyst Justin Froneman
during the Mining Indaba's first day. “There is a dire need to grow
mining production across Africa, but this requires more energy.The
question is where this power base comes from.”
The situation in South Africa particularly, was a hot discussion
topic during the event. Last week Eskom confessed how 37 % of its
installed generating capacity of 42.000MWwas offline lastThursday.
This resulted in rolling blackouts across the country. “Over the past
years South Africa's natural resource output has dropped. Gold
was no exception,” says Stern. “According to recent statistics by
the Chamber of Mines, our country's gold production fell by over
50 % over the last eight years, from 226 105 kg of fine gold in 2007
to 146 473 kg in 2013.”
Whilst there are many reasons to which this decline can be at-
tributed, energy insecurity is undoubtedly one of the most important
culprits. “In January 2008 alone, the month which heralded the start
of our power crisis, gold production in South Africa fell by 16,5 %,”
Stern said. “South Africa's gold output drop for the entire first
quarter of 2008 declined by 17 % compared to the same period the
year before.This can be directly attributed to our energy problems.”
Whilst load shedding slowly subsided and stayed away for a
while, it reared its ugly head last month. “It is important to realise
that the energy crisis has never gone away, and that it won't go
away anytime soon,” Stern said.
He added that although the energy crisis has hit gold producers
and other mining companies in particular, periphery players are
equally concerned. “We need power, whether it is to produce gold,
refine it or to turn it into for instance jewellery, Kruger Rands or
Minted gold bars,” he said. “During the past few months we have
had at least ten incidents of load shedding. Our timeous invest-
ment into a diesel generator has rescued our productivity, albeit
at a substantial cost. It is crucial for Eskom and the Department of
Energy to find a sustainable solution to ensure the future of gold
mining and the subsequent beneficiation of our precious metals.
South Africa's natural resource industry as well as upstream and
downstream operations are massive drivers of the economy and
important job creators too. If mining has a hard time, everyone else
has a hard time too.”
The nuclear deal with Russia might be controversial, but is good
news in terms of energy security, Stern says, explaining that it will,
in the long run provide South Africa with a stable supply of energy.
“The problem is that it will take many years before these new
power plants will start pumping energy into the energy grid,” he
stressed. “We need something in the interim to keep our country's
economy going.”
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Power crisis negatively affecting precious metals sector
53 March ‘15 Electricity+Control