Eritrea: Nevsun unfazed by unreliable power at Bisha plant
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| Eritrean miners at the Bisa plant |
Nevsun unfazed by unreliable power at Bisha plant
By Henery Lazenby
TORONTO – Eritrea-focused copper producer Nevsun Resources was unaffected by power supply issues that had forced a temporary halt in concentrate production at its flagship Bisha mine.
Vancouver-based Nevsun reported that the 27-generator-strong third-party-supplied power plant was undergoing routine maintenance when it failed to reliably restart this week.
Nevsun noted that despite the power outages, mining operations continued at full capacity and Bisha continued to truck and export stockpiled concentrates.
The company had already achieved its full-year production guidance of between 180-million pounds and 200-million pounds of copper in concentrate and the plant interruption did not have a negative impact on the company’s 2014 financial results, as it would draw down and sell from stockpiled concentrate inventories.
Bisha’s diesel power plant is provided by Aggreko Power Systems. Recently, Aggreko replaced nine of the 27 generators as part of scheduled maintenance of the plant. Nevsun said that Aggreko had now sent to the Bisha site the appropriate resources and technical personnel to assess and correct the problem.
The company’s TSX-listed stock was trending negatively on Monday, changing hands at C$4.30 apiece in afternoon trading.
Eritrea: Nevsun unfazed by unreliable power at Bisha plant
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But perhaps they can use the 2.7 miniwatt that the EU gave Eritrea last week. Lol Eritrea's energy problems are so big, even the biggest investor inside the country is feeling the pain. The percentage of people having access to electricity in Eritrea is supposedly higher than in Ethiopia. The difference is that Ethiopia is rapidly expanding its capacity to generate energy, while there are no significant projects in the pipeline in Eritrea (with the exception of the 2.7 miniwatt EU assistance) of course.
ReplyDeleteJust to give you an indication on the power projects on the table/under construction/completed: Gilgel Gibe 1 (184MW), Gilgel Gibe 2 (420MW), Tekeze 1 (300MW), Tana Beles (460MW), Adama 1/2 wind farm (350MW), Genale Dawa 3(254MW), Guder dam (1780MW), Gibe 3 (1870MW) and of course the mighty GERD (6000MW). Note that these are just a fraction of the power projects in Ethiopia and note that all of them (without exception) have greater capacity (in many cases more than 10 times) than Hirgigo power plant.
Eritrea of course has no significant rivers like Ethiopia does (only seasonal), but it does have substantial geothermal potential. The question is why the Eritrean government doesn't utilize this potential, instead of waiting for small scale help from EU for projects that can not alleviate the great problems in Eritrea.