Officials at platinum firm Anglo American have predicted that the South African power crisis could last longer than some originally believed.

Ian Morison, Head of Engineering in Anglo American's Technical Division, and Gordon Smith, Head of Strategic Long Term Planning for Anglo Platinum, disagreed with Anglo American's Chief Executive Officer.

Cynthia Carroll told the Mining Indaba Conference in February that problems with power supply would be solved, but Mr Morison and Mr Smith disagreed.

Mr Morison said Eskom could not guarantee a secure power supply meaning that the mining industry was at continued risk.

To combat the problems, Anglo American is installing generators throughout its mines to ensure the safety of workers in the event of a power failure.

Nearly 100MW of power will be installed on Anglo Platinum's operations and Mr Smith said there was still confidence in Eskom.

He said that he believed more power would be supplied, but said that mines were at risk when they did not know when that would be.

The firm is also implementing a number of short-term and long-term generation projects to increase power supply, MiningMx reports.



Source:

SA's power crunch could last longer than expected, 26/08/08
http://www.miningmx.com/energy/726711.htm