Listed Mining Companies
ADD A COMMENT PRINT 
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – World number-one platinum producer Anglo Platinum (Angloplat) has awarded NYSE-listed General Electric’s (GE’s) transportation unit, GE Transportation, a contract to supply 26 emergency diesel generators to its mining operations in South Africa.
“We are extremely pleased to be able to provide generators to Anglo Platinum. This deal is a testament to the strength of our design and capability to accelerate delivery during a difficult time,” said GE Transportation manager John Manison.
The widespread power outages in South Africa in early 2008 led to production stoppages, while ongoing capacity constraints have forced the national electricity utility to request industrial users to reduce consumption.
GE Transportation said in a statement on Tuesday that in order to guarantee the safety of all underground personnel, Angloplat would be using the GE diesel generators to evacuate personnel in the event of a complete power blackout. The generators would be installed at 12 Angloplat sites, with the largest operations having a peak installed capacity of 15,4 MW.
“Recent experiences of power interruptions, and the resulting risk to people underground in our mines, necessitated this project,” said Angloplat’s executive head of projects and engineering, Fritz Neethling.
During September 2008, Anglo Platinum successfully completed the factory testing of the first two generator sets. The key criteria were that the generator sets were able to load follow and load share in parallel, while handling the severe transients that are characteristic of mine winders and associated fans and pumps required for operating underground mines.
