full statement10 Dec 2019 17:47
Update on Load Shedding in South Africa
Petra Diamonds Limited announces that further to the downgrade of the load shedding status by Eskom from Stage 6 to Stage 4, the Company's mining operations in South Africa recommenced today and are running at a 20% load curtailment, in line with requirements.
Eskom has announced that the Stage 4 rotational load shedding is in place until 11:00pm SAST tonight, but has not yet communicated the situation from tomorrow onwards.
Petra is used to managing the operations optimally to maintain production levels as much as possible throughout load shedding requests. Such measures include the bringing forward of essential maintenance work and restricting load curtailment to processing plants where possible, given the Company's operations have excess processing capacity which allows for additional throughput when full power is restored.
However, the impact of the current load curtailment on the Company will depend on the duration and level of severity of the power restriction.