If you hadn't heard, Chile suffered an enormous power outage yesterday that knocked out 80% of the country for most of Sunday afternoon and night. The direct cause was a transformer failure but nobody really doubts that the underlying problem is after-effects of the massive 8.8mag quake (that you know about already).
This Reuters report takes in the industry side of things. It notes that the big copper miners are now back at work but officials are worried about further blackouts that may continue to affect production. The big quake didn't make much of a dent in copper production because it was not in the main northern prodcution area, but if nationwide blackouts become a regular thing spokes may indeed get put in the wheels of world copper supply by Chile's current woes. Here are a couple of extracts from the longer Reuters note:
This Reuters report takes in the industry side of things. It notes that the big copper miners are now back at work but officials are worried about further blackouts that may continue to affect production. The big quake didn't make much of a dent in copper production because it was not in the main northern prodcution area, but if nationwide blackouts become a regular thing spokes may indeed get put in the wheels of world copper supply by Chile's current woes. Here are a couple of extracts from the longer Reuters note:
SANTIAGO (Reuters) – Key mines in Chile resumed operations after energy supply returned on Monday following a massive blackout in the top copper producer two weeks after an earthquake killed hundreds and damaged the main power grid.
Chile state miner Codelco’s Andina and El Teniente mines restarted operations after the power disruption late on Sunday. Antofagasta Minerals’ Los Pelambres copper mine was also returning to normal, a company official said.
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The government said late on Sunday that the electricity grid was fragile due to damage from the quake and asked Chileans to use less energy, warning that more outages could hit the South American country.