Wednesday, March 11, 2015

KENMARE OPERATIONS HIT BY FLOODING

The Irish company Kenmare Resources on Wednesday announced that the link with the electricity grid has been cut near its dredge mine in Moma district, on the coast of the northern Mozambican province of Nampula.According to the company, recent flooding in Nampula province has resulted in damage to the power line between the Moma mine and the city of Nampula. The power failure took place when the Meluli River burst its banks. Kenmare is now working with the publicly owned electricity company EDM to carry out the necessary repairs.
Meanwhile, the company is using its diesel generators to run its operations at a reduced capacity. The backup power is being alternated between the mineral separation plant and the web concentrator plant.The company states that the negative effect of the power cut will be mitigated by the fact that it has “significant levels of ilmenite product inventories on hand”. The mine at Moma extracts ilmenite, rutile and zircon from titanium-bearing heavy mineral sands. Ilmenite (iron titanium oxide) and rutile (titanium dioxide) are used to make white pigments for paints, paper and plastic. Titanium can be extracted from these ores and used to manufacture metallic parts where light weight and high strength are needed. Zircon (zirconium silicate) is used for abrasive and insulating purposes.Moma is one of three districts in the southern part of the province (the others being Angoche and Mogovolas) which currently have no overland contact with Nampula city, since key bridges have been washed away or damaged. Last week’s storms carved a trail of destruction across the province, destroying over 10,700 houses, and severely impacting road and rail traffic. The railway between the port of Nacala and Malawi was cut in eight separate places between Nacala and the town of Monapo.Inside Nacala a bridge that was supposed to have been rehabilitated only last year crumbled under the impact of the storm, cutting the road between the industrial part of the city and the port. 

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