November 21, 2008

Exxaro KZN Sands Furnace No 2 damaged

Diversified resources group Exxaro Resources Limited announced that a water ingress incident has resulted in substantial damage to Furnace 2 at the KZN Sands Empangeni central processing complex.

It said that no one was injured during the incident and the incident and extent of the resultant damage is the subject of a detailed investigation at present.

The incident has resulted in Furnace 2 being shut down. Furnace 2 was due for a scheduled maintenance shut beginning in June 2008 and the incident will require this planned four month shut to be brought forward. Preliminary estimates suggest that the repairs to the furnace will increase the total downtime by a further four months, including a one month ramp up period.

Although Furnace 1 is fully operational, the outage at Furnace 2 is expected to result in significant lower production of both slag and low manganese pig iron in 2008 when compared to the 2007 financial year.