October 13, 2008

Samancor closes ferrochrome furnace after explosion

The world's second largest producer of ferrochrome, Samancor Chrome on Friday said that a furnace at its plant near Witbank in Mpumalanga was likely to stay closed for three to four months following an explosion on Sunday in which a worker was killed.
Samancor in a statement said that it was a converter that exploded, but details as to what caused the explosion were not yet available and necessary investigations were ongoing. It added that the relevant authorities had been informed and the furnace would remain shut in order for the investigations could take place.

Mr Sunel Pretorius a spokesperson of Samancor told Mining Weekly that the priority was to establish why the accident took place so that preventative measures could be taken to ensure that something like that never happens again.

He added that the extent to which production at the plant would be affected was not clear.