Petra Production Hit by South Africa Power Woes

(IDEX Online) - Production at Petra Diamonds' South African mines has been hit by ongoing rolling power cuts across the country. 

Following a request by Eskom, the South African electricity utility, Petra halted produced, hoisting and processing at the Cullinan, Finsch and Koffiefontein mines on December 9. 

On December 10, Eskom downgraded the situation from the unprecedented Stage 6 load shedding to Stage 4. As a result, Petra restarted its mining operations with a 20-percent load curtailment, in line with requirements.

In an update, Petra said it is used to managing the operations optimally to maintain production levels as much as possible throughout load shedding requests. It said that such measures include bringing forward essential maintenance work and restricting load curtailment to processing plants where possible.