Experts herald the mining industry as the light of Africa’s future. With the prevailing power deficiency, however, will the roadmap ahead be dim? Altaaqa Global CAT Rental Power marketing manager Robert Bagatsing, GM Peter den Boogert and strategic accounts director Majid Zahid share their thoughts.

The tenacity that Africa has shown in the face of the recent economic crisis is nothing short of commendable. If numbers from the African Development Bank’s ‘African Economic Outlook’ for 2014 are any indication, the continent’s future looks bright. Experts forecast growth rates of 4.8% in 2014 and 5.7% in 2015, and financial in-flows in the area of $200-billion.

Playing a major role in Africa’s notable economic performance is the mining industry, widely regarded as one of the chief pillars of the African economy – and not without reason. The mineral industry in Africa is one of the largest in the world, riding high on the continent’s vast 30-million-square-kilometre land area. Africa is richly endowed with mineral reserves, including bauxite, cobalt, diamonds, phosphate rock, platinum-group metals, vermiculite and zirconium. Naturally, gold mining is the African mining industry’s bread and butter.

The world sees the enormous size of Africa’s mining territory, but much of the continent’s potential still remains unearthed. Experts say that a considerable percentage of Africa’s precious metal reserves are underexplored, owing to several financial and operational constraints, among which is the observed lack of dependable, viable and sustainable power. For instance, in a recent release, the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo has advised mining companies to suspend any expansion plans or contractual modifications that would require extra power until further notice, in an effort to control the country’s demand for energy. The foregoing initiative from government may have its benefits in the context of energy conservation, but it may create economic and social deviations in the operations of the mining companies.

In light of this recent conundrum, from the prism of transitivity, a shortage in power supply could mean lost opportunities. With the postponement of mining expansion projects, additional mineral reserves, which could mean additional sources of revenue for operators, will remain unexplored for a longer period of time. A deficiency in energy could mean lost time, as plans that took years to finalise have already been chalked up, only to be discarded or shelved. A deficit in electricity could mean lost employment and income.

With mining playing a major role in most African country economies, an insufficiency in energy may have catastrophic wide-scale economic repercussions. In 2008, blackouts in South Africa halted Anglo American, Impala Platinum and Harmony Gold Mining mines for five days – an incident that led to a notable difference in the companies’ and in the country’s growth rates that year. A repeat would imperil South Africa’s present economic projections, and in this day and age when economies no longer exist in a vacuum, a slight drop in one country’s economy may set off a domino effect.

The Effects of Load-Shedding on Mining

In a recent communication, Africa’s largest power producer State-owned Eskom has urged con-sumers to reduce demand in order to avoid load- shedding. Industry experts have warned of the negative operational and financial consequences that rotational load-shedding would have on the mining industry, with consultants estimating potential losses to be millions of rand a day. Although steps are being taken to ensure that production continues in most of the mines around the country, studies pointed to the fact that the deepest underground mines, touted to be the largest employers in the mining industry in South Africa, would be most affected by load- shedding. While this happened in South Africa, the same adverse effects on mining operations would be expected had the load-shedding happened elsewhere.

Making a Difference with Power

An electricity shortage may have several causes, including major planned or unplanned power plant facility refurbishment, a sudden spike in electricity demand, unstable electrical grid, emergency situations, turnaround and peak lopping or shaving, among others. In cases such as these, mining companies may opt to hire temporary power plants to instantly supply viable and sustainable electricity to their facilities for an uninterrupted operation. Cost-benefit studies conducted across different mining facilities around the world show that the cost of renting interim power generation plants is marginal, compared with the economic and financial impact that delays or suspension could bring to operations.

In other cases, mining operations that have localised electricity generation facilities, for instance, may experience energy shortage during summer or winter months, when there is a need to dedicate electricity for climate control. Without supplementary power, mining facilities could not meet the seasonal energy requirement, making the production environment unsuitable for working. Studies show that days with extreme temperature aberration are few in a year, thus mining facilities are discouraged to devote permanent power generation facilities solely for this purpose. This, therefore, makes a strong case for employing rental power plants, which is not as capital intensive as constructing a new, dedicated permanent power generation facility.

Interim power facilities, like the solutions offered by global temporary energy solutions firm Altaaqa Global CAT Rental Power, could mean the difference between lost opportunities and breakthrough. Altaaqa Global’s solutions are suitable for a wide range of applications, such as underground mines, openpit mines or ore processing facilities. The company caters for standby power, prime power, continuous power, load lopping, peak shaving, or for utility power distribution. As its products are customisable in size, capacity and cost, these can be rented by large international mining corporations and smaller regional or local aggregates producers, quarry operators or miners.

Altaaqa Global has delivered sustainable solutions to myriad projects across the Middle East and Africa, and with expert teams on the ground, the company provides after-sales support to installed and commissioned projects at any given location.

Through its corporate social responsibility programme, Altaaqa Global seeks to alleviate the social challenges where it operates through providing job opportunities, extending educational assistance and conducting awareness campaigns on energy conservation and environmental stewardship.

The Future, Electrified

Permanent power generation facilities, which could provide a long-term solution to the continent’s power woes, are gaining ground in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa, but their fruition could take some time. While these are in progress, mining companies could opt to rent interim power generation facilities, which are capable of satisfying urgent requirements in a considerably shorter time, precluding disastrous operational delays and suspensions.