The mining industry is willing to engage with State power utility Eskom to find solutions that will help to improve electricity supply.
Chamber of Mines president Mike Teke expressed the chamber’s concern about the negative impact of load-shedding on the mining sector and said mining’s nonproduction had a direct impact on upstream and downstream industries.
He invited Eskom senior executives to engage with mining leadership to prevent production stoppages caused by continuous reductions in electricity supply, as these would hurt the economy as a whole.
“This is the time when all industries need to join forces with Eskom to address the electricity supply challenges that the country is facing.
“The mining industry is willing to engage to find solutions that will help improve electricity supply. I am concerned that, in the mining sector, the cost of resuming production is much higher than just cutting electricity supply to a mine,” Teke said, adding that mining had already taken steps to cut its electricity demand by 10% to assist Eskom in improving the electricity reserve situation.