Power outages hit mining at Kombat

FIVE power outages in the past week have brought the extraction of water from a mineshaft at Kombat to a halt, resulting in a review of costs and copper production, the mining company Weatherly says.

The British company said it would only continue underground work at Kombat once it was assured of a stable electricity supply. “The production review was prompted by five unexpected power outages in the past week which has impacted on the progress of dewatering the shaft and the associated cost,” Company Secretary John Norris said in a statement issued at the end of last week.”Following the unreliability of electricity supply from the state-owned utility NamPower, which is not expected to improve significantly in the next few years, coupled with the rising cost of electricity, the risk profile of the dewatering campaign has increased substantially,” Norris said.”The review has concluded it would be a better allocation of capital and resources to suspend the dewatering at Kombat in favour of (exploiting) ore deposits above the water table in the underground mine.In due course, if there is a guaranteed stable and economic supply of electricity, Weatherly will consider recommencing dewatering” the Kombat shaft.”The production review was prompted by five unexpected power outages in the past week which has impacted on the progress of dewatering the shaft and the associated cost,” Company Secretary John Norris said in a statement issued at the end of last week.”Following the unreliability of electricity supply from the state-owned utility NamPower, which is not expected to improve significantly in the next few years, coupled with the rising cost of electricity, the risk profile of the dewatering campaign has increased substantially,” Norris said.”The review has concluded it would be a better allocation of capital and resources to suspend the dewatering at Kombat in favour of (exploiting) ore deposits above the water table in the underground mine.In due course, if there is a guaranteed stable and economic supply of electricity, Weatherly will consider recommencing dewatering” the Kombat shaft.