Power cuts leave miners trapped in cages

Zambia, Zimbabwe power cuts hit mining output
Mon 21 Jan 2008, 9:59 GMT
By Shapi Shacinda and Nelson Banya LUSAKA/HARARE (Reuters) -

A nation-wide power blackout over the weekend hit copper and cobalt output in Zambia and briefly trapped workers underground, as mines also ground to a halt in neighbouring Zimbabwe, officials said on Monday. Zimbabwe was plunged into darkness on Saturday and power was only partially restored on Sunday, after what officials at the state electricity utility said was a "systems disturbance" at its Kariba hydropower station on the border with Zambia. Zambia state power utility Zesco Ltd. said it was investigating the cause of a power blackout, which left the entire country in darkness for several hours on Saturday night. Zambia state media said about 300 miners on night shifts at units of Konkola Copper Mines (KCM) and Mopani Copper Mines (MCM) were trapped in shafts for hours after power went off. The power outage also caused partial flooding at Chililabombwe copper mine, a unit of KCM, as water could not be pumped out, officials said. Luanshya Copper Mines (LCM) Chief Executive Officer Derek Webbstock 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. Miners at KCM's Chililabombwe and Mopani Nkana mines were trapped for several hours after the power disruption. "The good thing is it happened on a weekend when our production is not very much. We also responded quickly and there were no fatalities," said Passmore Hamukoma, Mopani's spokesman. EMERGENCY POWER IMPORTS Chililabombwe mine suffered some flooding after water could not be pumped out due to the power failure, while KCM, Zambia's largest copper producer, was still assessing the amount of loss. 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 loss in output. The mines re-started after Zambia imported emergency power from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zambia's Daily Mail said. 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. Jack Murewa, president of Zimbabwe's Chamber of Mines, told Reuters several hours of production was lost during the outage. More time would be lost as flooded mines were drained. "Things came to a halt at most mines, with serious ramifications on production," Murewa said. "Apart from the failure to produce, mines also lost pumping capacity and lots of time will be spent pumping out water from the ground." Murewa said although the total loss suffered by mining companies as a result of the electrical failure was yet to be ascertained, it ran into millions of U.S dollars. Among the firms affected by the power outage was Zimplats, in which Impala Platinum, the world's second biggest producer of platinum, holds a majority stake. Apart from frequent power cuts, miners in Zimbabwe -- which boasts the world's second largest platinum reserves after South Africa as well as huge gold, nickel and coal deposits -- have had to grapple with a skewed exchange rate, foreign currency shortages and the threat of nationalisation.