(Adds details, reaction from union from paragraphs 4.)
Copper mining operations in Zambia's Copperbelt were suspended
Wednesday after a fault at a main power substation, officials told
Dow Jones Newswires.
Speaking by telephone from Lusaka, the Zambian capital, an
official with state power utility Zambia Electricity Supply Corp.
said faults at the Leopards Hill substation early Wednesday
disrupted power supply to the Copperbelt, home to the country's
vast copper and cobalt mines.
"Engineers are still trying to restore supply but at the moment,
everything is off," he said.
The outages affected mainly underground mines, which rely on
Zesco's power supply to dewater underground operations for normal
mining operations.
Copper Mines in the Northwestern province, such as First Quantum
Minerals Ltd.'s (FM.T) Kansanshi Copper Mines and Barrick Gold
Corp.'s (ABX) Lumanwa Copper Mines, weren't affected by the
outage.
Sikufela Mundia, president of National Union of Miners and
Allied Workers, said miners who were working underground at the
time of the outage have since been rescued after companies switched
on emergency power supplies.
"We have not received reports of any causalities at the moment,"
he said by telephone from Kitwe, in the Copperbelt.
At least 400 miners were underground at Konkola Copper Mines and
Mopani Copper Mines--the two largest mining companies in the
Copperbelt respectively--when the outage occurred.
Zesco officials said normal power supply is expected to be
restored in the "next few hours. "The utility is investigating the
cause of the faults at the Leopards Hill substation."
Zambia's power installations are prone to breakdowns, mainly due
to inadequate investments in maintenance works.
Coppper mining companies consume at least 60% of the country's
generated power.
Mining companies with major operations in the Copperbelt include
London-listed Vedanta Resources PLC (VED.LN), Glencore
International AG (GLEN.LN) and China Nonferrous Metals Co.
(8306.HK).
-By Nicholas Bariyo, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires;
256-75-2624615 bariyonic@yahoo.co.uk