JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) - Enforced government stoppages have denied Anglo American Platinum (Amplats) 109 000 oz of platinum which are not connected to any mine fatality.
The 81 Section 54 stoppages, which brought wide areas of the JSE-listed company's production with a standstill in the year 2011, lasted a lot longer than ever previously experienced, Amplats CEO Neville Nicolau said on Monday (se also accompanying Mining Weekly Video footage).
Moreover, even though stoppages were meant to increase safety, Nicolau contended that in practice there was a hazard of the reverse being true.
This is because regular, sudden and unplanned operational stoppages of underground mines significantly increased safety risk.
"We offer the concept of Section 54 stoppages nonetheless they do require some further explanation," Nicolau added.
concrete crushing plant
In the past year, the 81 stoppages issued to your company's directly owned mines were 2.5 times more than last year.
Of the 138 000 oz lost at own mines, a lot more than 100 000 oz were lost without any miner having died.
If Amplats included its share of three way partnership and associate production, it lost over 164 000 oz of platinum because of safety stoppages, with 109 000 oz the consequence of nonfatal Section 54 stoppages.
Most of the 61 000 fewer ounces that its joint venture and associate mines produced stoppage-induced. concrete recycling machine
Had the federal government not enforced the nonfatal stoppages, Amplats' own mines would have been able to beat 2010 output. Even against the many stoppage odds, the start-up at Unki in Zimbabwe and Mogalakwena's improved results allowed own-mine production to check 2010's 1.56-million ounces.
But as it turned out, Amplats managed to achieve only 2.41-million ounces of equivalent refined platinum, a 3% year-on-year decrease.
coal mill parts
Refined platinum at 2.53-million ounces seemed to be 2% down but refined 2011 platinum sales totalled the promised 2.6-million ounces.
No comments:
Post a Comment