‘Nightmare’ Now Reality at Mines
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The “nightmare” of all South Africa’s major gold and platinum mines shutting down, because of power cuts, became true on Friday.
“Tens of millions of rands a day are being lost. It’s a nightmare,” said T-sec chief economist Mike Schussler.
The JSE gold mining sub-sector closed almost 6% lower on Friday.
Chris Hart, Investment Solution economist, said mining was a key industry for the country.
“From that point of view the (power) cuts seem . . . almost a disaster. “
The Chamber of Mines earlier announced that several gold and platinum mines had to shut down operations because Eskom could not guarantee power supplies on Friday.
Coal supplies that got wet due to the weather formed part of the problem, said senior executive Frans Baker .
Apparently some power stations had also gone down.
‘Very dramatic’
Harmony Gold spokesperson Amelia Soares said the company had only run emergency facilities in Friday.
The company would lose R60m from Friday’s suspended operations, she said.
Gold Fields spokesperson Willie Jacobsz said the company was losing production of around 7 000 ounces per day because of the shutdown.
The impact of power cuts was “very, very dramatic. It is radical . . . unprecedented,” he said.
AngloGold Ashanti said it had halted mining and gold recovery operations throughout SA.
BHP Billiton SA said its Bayside, Hillside and Mozal aluminium smelters continued to operate although power cuts were occurring at these locations.
The manganese mine at Hotazel was not operational on Friday.
“We have voluntarily reduced load at Metalloys and MMC since Thursday.”
Consumers can’t solve the problem
The company said its coal mines were continuing to operate. “[We] are doing everything [we] can to ensure coal supply to Eskom.”
Trade union Solidarity said platinum company Lonmin had been busy withdrawing its workers from the workplace on Friday.
None of the mining companies had a timeframe of how long the situation was expected to continue.
Gold Fields spokesperson Jacobsz said Eskom had indicated to them that all key industrial consumer (KIC) loads would be reduced to “survival levels” or switched out totally for the next two to four weeks.
Earlier, on Friday, the Democratic Alliance said the shutdown of the mines indicated the electricity crisis was out of control.
“[Government’s] fundamental mismanagement of Eskom is now threatening to derail our future economic prospects,” said DA minerals and energy spokesperson Hendrik Schmidt.
Freedom Front Plus head Pieter Mulder said the government and Eskom could not expect consumers to solve the problem instead of the suppliers.
“The government’s measures will punish consumers with fines, quotas and rationing, while the crisis was largely caused by poor short term planning and maintenance at Eskom.”
Rand likely to weaken
Hart said while in some ways, the power crisis was a result of the success of South Africa’s previous economic growth, “[Now] we can’t progress from what we have achieved”.
He said the rand was likely to weaken even more than it already had.
T-sec chief economist Schussler said he had not been approached by so many people for economic advice since September 11.
“My brain is fried. Everyone is up in arms,” he said.
“People are very very negative. Negativity in its own right will have an impact on the economy.
“Would you invest in a country whose electricity is not secure? As we lose interest so do foreigners.”
Schussler said government needed to spend more time on the power issue that “fighting amongst themselves.
“It’s time the blame gets laid on the right people.”
Despite numerous efforts, comment from Eskom on the situation could not be obtained.
(Posted on January 28, 2008)
Comments
Zimbabwe here we come!!! But yet another previously world class White country going down the “black” hole. And trust me, if Obama gets elected we will soon follow!!
Posted by Tom S at 6:01 PM on January 28
My girlfriends speech therapist recently made a remark about South Africa, how it seemed too “dangerous” a place to visit. Sensing a “teachable moment” I had her cut the session fifteen minutes short and punched up the web photos from The Death Of Johannesburg. “Oh myyyy… God!” Not trying to oversell, I softly asked her if she could feel the racial animosity coming through the pictures. The one that affected her most was a car hood planted across the bottom of a broken escalator to keep people from using it in what used to be a high end shopping mall…
Posted by Tim Mc Hugh at 6:17 PM on January 28
Five years the SA ecomony will be a basket case. You cannot allow mismanagment on the level going on and expect the gold mines to stay in production. When a mine has to shut down and stays shut down the job to get it producing again can be very diffcult. Once a boulder starts rolling down a hill, how do you stop it?
Posted by icemann at 6:48 PM on January 28
Better to have nothing than to let the white man run it.
Posted by at 6:52 PM on January 28
And another country is lost to the African darkness.
Posted by David W. at 6:53 PM on January 28
The problem is that the African National Congress (ANC) government has failed South Africa in a big way with its Affirmative Action policies where whites who were skilled or professionals in all spheres of goverment and commerce were replaced by law, in most cases at all levels, with unskilled and inexperienced blacks who also do not possess the self-disciplines needed to succeed in a work environment. Many of the individual whites were replaced with two or more blacks who were then paid higher salaries, given low interest loans and expensive allowances. Many are overpaid for the job with salaries that have made them Rand millionaires almost overnight. That is why well over 1, 2 million skilled and professional whites have left South Africa with another estimated 750.000 now living in abject poverty. New Zealand Airways has been reported to have recently “grabbed” 72 skilled and experienced white aircraft technicians who had been replaced as part of this policy. There have been several recent accidents involving aircraft serviced by the “new staff”, and as an ex-licensed aircraft engineer, there is now way I will fly any of these airlines now. There is going to be a big crash soon and I hate being right in such matters.
Fifteen years ago, when the previous white government handed over the country to the ANC, they were given reports showing that new power stations were required with the plans for many years into the future, just as any Western or Asian country would do if it is being run correctly. There was plenty of cash in the Treasury, but what did the ANC do? Spend billions on unnecessary weapons, corruption wasted billions, the new president Mbeki had to have a luxury personal Boeing 737 jet costing US$43 million with the high running costs, and so on, while millions of his citizens are out of work living in poverty, are victims of serious crimes and far worse, and it is forecast that South Africa will be another Zimbabwe in about 10 or so years time. Confidential reports by some power station engineers (whites and Indians) who still work there say that a lot of the problem is the inability of the new engineering staff to maintain the equipment and the management to make the right decisions.
More can be read on what happens in SA on www.africancrisis.co.za and www.spainvia.com
A new coal fired power station costs Rands 10 billion to build. The SA Press has announced that the power cuts which affect everybody (except the president’s home) are costing the SA economy R1 billion a day. There is enough quality coal in SA to last 120 years and a lot of it is open cast, not deep mining. 50% of the fuel for transport is made from coal there but due to people buying generators now even for home use, there is a shortage of especially diesel fuel.
It is expected that the new President who is expected to win the next national elections in 2009, is a man called Jacob Zuma who is an uneducated man except for being trained as a communist. He has charges of corruption hanging over his head as do other senior members of the government.
Posted by Brian Deller at 10:50 PM on January 28
“The “nightmare” of all South Africa’s major gold and platinum mines shutting down, because of power cuts, became true on Friday.”
And the deterioration continues to slowly take place at a marked pace every month.
When the implosion comes, I’m hoping S.A.’s Boers and other whites will dig up their guns and ammo without delay so they will be prepared for the black onslaught.
Posted by Delarey at 1:16 AM on January 29
let me do a little multi-culti editing magic:
before
“It’s time the blame gets laid on the right people.”
after
“It’s time the blame gets laid on the white people.”
Posted by mrJAXX at 1:42 AM on January 29
Just as the State of California has entered a financial death spiral, if the South Africans don’t get on the stick, this, too, can become self-fulfilling reality.
On the BRIGHT side, this can do nothing but good for the price of Gold. As the Fifth Dimension sang “Up, Up and Away…”.
Posted by Felix at 1:50 AM on January 29
Blame black empowerment. Blame liberal whites who provide moral support and all anti-apartheid activists. It is not only electricity. It is the condition of South Africa’s roads, the collapse of the public health service, municipalities, sewage in drinking water, the list is endless. The collapse of the South African economy and state is here in a much more spectacular fashion than you have seen in Zimbabwe. In short, this is the destruction of an outpost of Western Civilization and the next phase in the last stand of the Boere Afrikaner. We are not running, because tomorrow it is Europe, America and the rest of the West. Also, there are nearly a million poor Afrikaners, empoverished by black empowerment, who have nowhere to go and they need all the help they can get.
Posted by at 8:31 AM on January 29
Just another milepost on the long slide. Nice that Harry Oppenheimer’s (Anglo American Corporation, and the “quiet engine behind the ANC”, as he boasted) interests are not immune.
Posted by at 8:39 AM on January 29
“Coal supplies that got wet due to the weather formed part of the problem”. Most likely the dog ate the part of the plan that kept the coal dry. I guess in the West, we’ve learned to keep our energy supply plans away from hungry dogs, probably because we stole that knowledge from the ancient Africans. This has nothing to do with the fact that their country is run by people who never developed writing, metallurgy, or the wheel.
Posted by Ginnungagap at 9:19 AM on January 29
An ethnic counterpart to the Oppenheimer clan ran afoul of Mugabe and got himself arrested in Zimbabwe, a fellow by the name of Hoogsratten.
Posted by Simmons at 9:39 AM on January 29
Like right out of ATALS SHRUGGED
(by Ayn Rand. If you have not read this book, you must. It is The Second most influential fiction book ever written, the Bible being the first)
When those who create and produce leave, then you are left with what we see in Zimbabwe and South Africa. What was once the number one nation in all of Africa has now returned to the natural black state.
Remove the whites and you remove the civiliztion. Africans never achieved beyond the stone age/early iron age. Whites moved in and built first world countries. When you take the white man out, you leave the original stone age culture. Thus, it reverts back to what was there before the white man arrived. It is that simple.
Any remaining white in South Africa is doomed to be killed. Get out. If you can’t, try to group together so that when the killing starts you may have a chance. In the end, though, you are all dead.
Posted by LOGIC at 9:39 AM on January 29
Funny how power supplies in South Africa under the evil apartheid regime were as reliable as in Europe or America and there were power stations mothballed due to overcapacity, kept ready for when demand grew. South Africa was claimed to have the cheapest electricity in the world, it produced diesel from coal and had some of the leading energy technology in the world with the largest coal fired power station, cutting edge dry-cooled power stations etc. It even exported electricy throughout Southern Africa.
Now, within fourteen years of black rule the fifth greatest coal producer in the world goes dark whenever electricity demand peaks due to cold weather, hot weather etc. Black commuters set fire to trains in Pretoria halted by the power cuts, as if that will help their situation. Can one imagine white commuters setting fire to a train that had broken down out of frustration?
Yet when the DNA Dr James Watson declared he was “inherently gloomy” about the prospects of Africa because “all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours - whereas all the testing says not really” he was labelled a crank and an extremist!
Posted by Ed at 10:28 AM on January 29
http://southafricasucks.blogspot.com/ for some no holds barred reporting ‘as it really is’.
Posted by at 1:14 PM on January 29
Want to read another account of what happens “When those who create and produce leave”, or are forced to leave.
This is Non- fiction
Try the below mentioned Book, it should be an essential book purchase for every person who can still read. You might think twice about encouraging a black president in the USA, especially one with too close a ties to current Africa. The one who’s father comes from the the 2nd last African country busy burning itsself up, as we speak,(Kenya).
South Africa being the final black ruled debarcle, heading in the same direction. Watch this space.!
THE FATE OF AFRICA - A history of 50 years of independence
Author -Martin Meredith
Posted by ex white african at 2:18 PM on January 29
I’m sorry, but I can not stay off this topic.
Why don’t the gold mines build their own power stations? Combine or contract with a coal company for the coal supply. Own the coal cars on the train and maybe own the train engines as well.
In other words, return to the days of 1880’s of the Vanderbilt’s New York Central and Peabody Coal company and combine it all so as to not rely on other “companies” or the black government.
But, as soon as they do this and they are successful, the Africans will begin to tax it to death or destroy even that.
We are actually witnessing something never seen before. The “De-Industrialization” of nations. Zimbabwe and South Africa, the only two African nations raised to white standards are the two best examples of this de-industrialization process and it is all due to RACE.
I predict the Chinese will move in. They have no problems buying off the African leaders and taking control. China does not have any domesticated Blacks (they castrated all their black male slaves when they were purchased from the Arab slavers. Actually, the Arabs did the castrations for the Chineses, but it was still the white man’s fault)
China has the money, the power and the will to buy into these gold mines. This may be why the leaders are letting this happen. Get them cheap from the English investors and sell out to the Chinese.
Posted by LOGIC at 3:25 PM on January 29
Good thing FIFA has required all soccer stadiums to have backup generators; otherwise the entire 2010 World Cup would have to be played during daylight hours. And with the tournament taking place in the austral winter, daylight will be a scarce commodity.
The PC loons running FIFA will deny it, of course, but you can bet your last rand they have contingency plans in place to move the World Cup elsewhere with very little notice, and are updating those plans daily.
Felix wrote: On the BRIGHT side, this can do nothing but good for the price of Gold. As the Fifth Dimension sang “Up, Up and Away…”.
That’s true, but if you’re looking to profit from this, do plenty of research and avoid all mining companies with any presence in ZA. No power means no production, which means their stocks will fall even as gold rises.
Posted by Strider at 7:56 PM on January 29
People are saying they give SA about 10 to 15 years. I doubt it will take that long.
Having lived through both Katrina and Betsey, I know very well what happens when the lights go out. Besides the violence, looting, and insane property damage, we lost tons of businesses both large and small, because they simply couldn’t take the financial loss of not being able to operate for a few months. Depending on where you were, it was a few weeks to several months to get back power, electricity, phones, or internet.
I gave up having a land line phone five months ago. Nobody in my neighborhood has one anymore- aand this is very close to the downtown business district- no flooding.
Posted by at 10:26 PM on January 29
Good. I am so glad. These mines and companies are owned
by the same ruthless internationalists who betrayed the White
Civilization of South Africa. Surely they must have known that
this would happen fairly soon? But perhaps the hatred they have
of the White Man exceeded their judgement. Or more likely, they
knew, but the destruction of our Race trumps all other concerns.
In any case, they have sown the wind, let them reap the Whirl-
wind. In the end, We will remain and clean up the mess they have
made-of everything.
Posted by Freyr at 11:27 PM on January 29