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Sibanye Gold workers return

March 18 2013 at 08:00am
By Bloomberg

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Sibanye Gold workers had returned to the mines as 75 percent of its power supply had been restored by Eskom, the company said on Friday. Mines producing a fifth of South Africa’s gold, including those of AngloGold Ashanti, were idled during the night shift last Wednesday following a blaze at an electricity substation. Workers went underground at four of Sibanye’s eight production shafts on Thursday night, Sibanye spokesman James Wellsted said. All but one shaft were back online for the day shift, he said. The fire at Midas substation in Gauteng cut 400 megawatts of electricity, or 1 percent of the country’s installed capacity. AngloGold had its West Wits operations idled following the power failure. Spokesman Alan Fine said on Friday that the company would give an update on the mines later. Eskom, which is building the world’s third- and fourth-largest coal-fired power plants, had asked Sibanye to manage with 140MW to 150MW of power, Wellsted said. The transformer’s repair would “take some time”, Eskom spokeswoman Hilary Joffe said. Sibanye shares declined 2.39 percent to close at R13.90 on the JSE on Friday. AngloGold Ashanti dipped 0.53 percent to R228.60. DRDGold, whose Doornfontein mine was affected, gained 2.42 percent to R6.78. The six-member FTSE/JSE Africa gold mining index rose 0.5 percent. – Bloomberg


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