Miners take hands-on approach to power shortages

More mining groups are being forced to build their own power plants, sending a few into the utility business and making the whole sector into astone crusher equipment price more complex investment proposition. Volatile global oil prices and power shortages in nations such as South Africa have lifted the importance of electricity for mining companies, curbing growth plans and boosting costs.

Miners have had to take more of a hands-on approach to power as their quest for big deposits has taken them to remote areas of the globe that are deficient in electricity. Mining groups Xstrata and Anglo American are working on feasibility plans to use waste coal in South Africa to fuel generation plants, Rio Tinto has plans for hydropower plant in Cameroon while copper producer Kazakhmys has become the biggest power generator in its home market of Kazakhstan. "I guess there's a power supply problem in all emerging markets and miners are having to go to off the beaten track to try to find resources," said analyst Tom Gidley-Kitchin at Charles Stanley in London...