The South African power crisis could hit production at Anglo American's platinum operations by as much as 150,000 oz.

According to comments from the firm's Chief Executive, Cynthia Carroll, the crisis could have a big effect.

"We've said publicly that the first big outage had an impact of about 30,000 oz of platinum," she told Reuters in a breakfast meeting.

"We are looking at another 120,000 oz for the rest of the year, so 150,000 oz (total)" she added.

"It's very, very significant," Ms Carroll said.

Platinum mines were hit in January when they were forced to close as Eskom could not guarantee enough power to ensure the safe running of mines.

Since then they have been operating on reduced power supplies and are in the process of negotiating to get power up to 95 per cent.

Source:

S.Africa power crisis to cut platinum output-Anglo, 23/04/08
http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idUSWEB253520080423

African power crisis helps Lonmin, 23/04/08
http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/article3800483.ece