Palabora to shift rail,power lines due to sinkhole
Palabora to shift rail, power lines due to sinkhole
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PALABORA Mining Company, controlled by Rio Tinto and Anglo American, will spend up to R40m to move rail and power lines because the ground near its underground mine is sinking.
Palabora, SA`s biggest copper producer, is digging the mine after the exhaustion of ore reserves at its open pit.
MD Keith Marshall said the mine had caused an area of 200mx600m to become unstable. `We are relocating infrastructure,`
he said.
`Some buildings, a company rail line and power lines` would be moved. Once the relocation was done, the subsidence would
be `monitored`, and no further damage was expected.
While the subsidence was 2,5km from the nearest homes, it was 600m from the state-owned Foskor phosphate operation.
Marshall said his company was in talks with Foskor, but did not expect any disruption of its activities, apart from the moving
of a haulage line.
Foskor spokeswoman Linda Damane said Foskor would be able to respond tomorrow. At present it is still unclear how Foskor`s operations are affected by the sinking ground.
Palabora posted a net loss of R158m in the six months to June after production fell. First-half sales were R1,3bn.
Palabora`s share price fell 220c, or 4,56%, to R46 on the JSE Securities Exchange SA yesterday, with 3562 shares changing
hands in four deals.
Profile Group (Pty) Ltd. has taken care in preparing all information on this website, but does not accept any liability for errors or out-of-date information.
