Production at gold mines in South Africa ground to a halt Friday as rolling power outages prevent miners in the world's second-largest gold producer going underground to extract the precious metal, reported dpa. Production at the country's three largest gold mining companies, Anglogold Ashanti, Harmony and Gold Fields, stopped after state electricity supplier Eskom instructed them to cut back on their electricity usage by 10-15 per cent daily, Solidarity trade union said in a statement. Eskom was looking for a monthly cut in energy usage by the mines of 60 per cent, the union said. AngloPlatinum, the world's largest producer of platinum, another precious metal currently enjoying record prices, had also suspended production, according to Solidarity. "It is not known when the mines will be able to resume underground operations, but indications are that it may take as long as a month," Solidarity said, estimating the production losses run in the millions of rands.
