Copper mining operations in Zambia’s Copperbelt have been halted Wednesday after a fault at a main power substation.
Zambia is struggling to restore power to some mines in the country, its energy minister said on Wednesday, after a power outage in Africa’s biggest copper producer hit the capital and the Copperbelt.
“It affected the mines, and we are still trying to restore power supply to some mines,” Cyprian Chitundu, managing director for state power company Zesco Ltd, told Reuters.Chitundu said the fault was at its Leopards Hill sub-station.
“When that problem occurred we lost Copperbelt and Lusaka. It was quite an impact, but we will be able to make an assessment once we start getting feedback from the mines.”[pullquote]Zesco sent smses at 09 00hrs that there would be no lights from 9- 16hrs but power had already gone at 0620hrs today[/pullquote]
Electricity supply in Zambia is expected to remain tight for the next four years, casting a shadow over the power-intensive mining sector in Zambia.
Mining companies with major operations on the Copperbelt include London-listed Vedanta Resources PLC (VED.LN), Glencore International AG (GLEN.LN),Canada’s First Quantum Minerals and Barrick Gold and China Nonferrous Metals Co.
A Chingola resident complained that there was no power from 10 00hrs to 16 00hrs on Tuesday and today power was gone as early as 0620hrs.
[Reuters/Dow jones]
How long will this last?
This is a result of poor capacity and infrastratcture planning. A critical region like CB must have redundancy power feed. One would understand that mines may have stand-by Gens for critical services but GRZ and Zesco need to services the heart of economy (mines) more effeciently and effectively. Stuff like wind-fall tax can be used to provision secondary power supply to the mines….
Too bad. Its to be expected though. If the people that took over Kaunda understood the importance of investment in infrastructure we probably could be at a much better level. The needs for infrastructure are massive; but the process of satisfying those needs will take decades; my prediction is about 30 years of continued investment. But if the PF government will not bother to listen to professionals; Zambia will not recover. Starting point: an implementation team either at the ministry of works or the ministry of finance. This team needs to comprise of people that have seen and known how to implement things (engineering); high practical knowlegde of commercial side of it; and very good financial management.
Man of action
It hurts to see Zambia going through all this when Kaunda trained us to deal with this. Yet we were paid peanuts; had no option but to leave. PF needs to wake up; I wish they kept their website alive, we could have been giving me ideas like we did in teh campaign time.
They are busy exporting power to south africa…i Wonder whats next
chitundu should be fired
It was total chaos, no traffic lights in city centres, no breakfast when leaving home elo ka lunch kachiba akansamushi…worse still, in the evening MOSI will be warm. Yaba, Chitundu pull up your socks man!
So this is all RB’s problem ka? One hopes that this illness/disease does not spread to fuel also otherwise wina azalila mokwana.
Aha ha. uwakwisano, you have made my day, ka mosi akakaba.
See, Zesco fired its experienced directors and replaced them with incompetent cadre engineers.
Sata promised to take us into the promised land in 90 days but what is happening is the exact opposite. Twanya!
Is this not double standards by Lusaka times? You sensor what you call bad language, and there you have that picture saying “This sucks.” In this context, sucking means sucking ass… Thats where that expression comes from…
No wonder the Nigerian who is putting up a cement factory in Ndola will build his own power plant,to avoid such nosense
A common occurance in poor third world country. Only someone insane would dispute this
Thanks
satan, which 90 days, the man is just a dreamer. that was just political language. at least he can rule before the attach comes on him again. its good he can be flown out. kaili hes no one
ZESCO and PF must pull up their socks otherwise Zambia may be headed for the West African situation where virtually every house and office building has a standby generator, with the resultant noise and air pollution. Investment in infrastructure is imperative. The warning signs are there…deteriorating roads, non-functioning railways, power cuts, lack of adequate central water supply necessitating sinking of boreholes etc etc
We need a fresh crop of leaders whose brains have no rust. How can you be having power outages through and through. When will this come to an end. (90 days ka????) I know what it means to have power cuts. Its so annoying
State hosue should share in the power cuts and remember NO SINGLE SOURCING this is not an emergency….go and tender
ONLY SOMEONE INSANE SHOULD SUGGEST LIKE MUSHOTA. THESE ARE JUST SIGNS THAT THE SO CALLED MAN OF ACTION HAS FAILED THE COUNTRY, FROM POWER OUTAGES TO SHORTAGE OF FUEL. WHAT MORE IS THERE IN MY BEAUTIFUL COUNTRY NOW. CAN GOD PLEASE HELP US BEFORE WE……… YABA….IT SEEMS WE ARE STACK WITH THIS GUY. (THE PRESIDENT). UNTIL 2016.
MUSHOTA FOR PRESIDENCY IN DECEMBER 2012.
Yeah….what happened to the promise the they would be no black outs when the “man of action” came in power? I guess action man has realized that running a country is not as simple as he thought.Â
Imagine if that mine sued ZESCO for loss of earning, that’s when it will be on its toes!!!
Guys leave MCS alone. It’s not his fault that politicians are so phony, especially during the campaigning time. Every presidential candidate has some stuff he says that will not do after being elected into power. If Obama can promise and not keep, who is MCS to promise and keep? Blackouts are normal, but please dont destroy all the forests, if at all there are any left, when fetching for firewood and dont burn your houses with koloboyis. Peace
Bruce Lee, Shoko Shugi, Jet lee, Jackie Chan, Don Yen and the list goes on, they are kicking our country’s as.s. But again they are our source of income. So live with it or travel
Pa Zed napo?? Its almost a decade now with these funny outages which many have come to accept as normal. We are always going backwards.
Chitundu fired experienced directors (though I don’t think he had authority to do that) and employed or promoted people with a similar vision to himself. Looks to me like that vision did not extend very far. Things are not looking too bright (excuse the pun) with him at the helm and with Sata as president. Make no mistake, RB was hopeless but I think Sata is no improvement on him. I’m afraid for the nation cause instead of more money in your pockets, everyone including the kaponya’s will have less money to spend. Too bad but it looks like back to the drawing board in 2016. In the meantime live with it.
With or without your beloved directors this was going to happen bwana.
AGONY IS…..Sata blaming black-outs on RB and promising Heaven on Earth when he takes over government,and yet within 2 months of his rule his government experiences the same black-out.
@ Ricky Bobby- What insanity is this? RB is not half the man Sata is. RB will be remembered as being the shortest serving African president. @MUSHOTA- I cannot help but remember your little ‘pro homosexual’ comment a few months ago, you represent the shameful half of society, you deserve to have been a victim of Hitler’s holocaust! Come at me, am waiting for you with my boxing gloves on!
sata is God, he will solve it
hahaaa man of fiction 90days when its actually 90 years
This problem occured during the MMD era. Ve not understood the cause of this problem.
@NSHUMFWA- Very intelligent as always. @ Kolwe- You are still recovering from the technical knock out your party received in the first round of the elections. @Don Corleone- You seem not to be in touch with reality. Sata did not say that when he comes into power the back outs will stop. I think he has a plan and he will at least contain the situation to spead up works on supply.@ Lungowe- Do not give Sata a title he has not given himself, you are a shameless Luciferon and you need prayers more than you even to buy Pads for that time of the month!
Hahahaha, Okay Lungowe, waku udza! As for MUSHOTA, am waiting to gun your statements and get your head on a silver plate!
THIS JUST IN- ZCAS girl releases a pornographic video, look out for it. Her initials are I.K. Please ask the police to investigate matter as pornography is a crime!
hey this stuff is dangerous for miners underground where the rock surface can become 56C and the cooling systems shut down ….thou they should have back gend
These guys have made someones life difficult after being burnt by a very high voltage cable in KCM to day around 15hrs. power cut indeed cause alot of problems like house and households burnt.think twice zesco.
oh reading about leopards hill sub-station makes me miss home was born and grow up in that compound all sorrounded by transformers my father used to work there and i know how bad it gets when there a problem i remember in the past years one day there was fire from one of the transformers iyeee its bad indeed.this problem is not new the government should do something.
# 23 PLEASE GO TO HELL IS THAT HOW LOW YOU THINK….. LEADERS MUST BE RESPONSIBLE AND BE ACCOUNTABLE TO WHAT EVER THEY SAY, LET US AVOID MANIPULATE PEOPLE FOR THE SELFISH GAIN.
We told you about this POWER FAILURE (PF),that they have no capacity to run the country ,here we are .These are hopeless visionless Kaponyas right from sate house to the streets.They have dismissed real professionals and replaced them with thugs in key economic sectors of the country.The sad news is that this just the beginng unless true christians pray for a miracle to happen in the country.This Katolika driven government is going to drive country to the drains.You will cry for the real man RB!!!!!!!!!!!