Power failure and the limitations of diesel-generated electricity caused a lead smelter in Australia to shut down operations for around two weeks.
Multi-metals firm Nyrstar was forced to shut its Port Pirie smelter in South Australia after severe storms led to an outage of its power supply, including the blast furnace on September 28th.
Despite a black-start diesel generator powering the blast furnace for several hours, the prolonged outage meant slag solidified and the blast furnace could not be tapped.
The blast furnace was subsequently closed down for repairs, impacting Metals Processing Earnings Before Interest Taxes Depreciation Amortisation by around $3-5 million ($3.35-5.58million).
It comes as months of sideways trading on London’s lead market saw the price of lead jump almost $200 per tonne, hitting a 16-month high of $2,157.
Timing for the full restart of operations will depend upon when power is fully restored to the site by the network operator, says the company’s website.
Bill Scotting, Nystar chief executive officer, said: “We are obviously very disappointed that the power supply in South Australia has failed and the impact that this has caused to the Port Pirie plant.
“The Port Pirie site is working incredibly hard to ensure we are in a position to restore the blast furnace to full functionality as soon as full power is restored. No other plant damage has occurred and the outage is not expected to have any impact to the Port Pirie Redevelopment schedule.”
The Port Pirie Smelter is being changed into an advanced multi metals processing and recovering facility.
