SHANGHAI, Jun 29 (SMM) — The Daixian County Bureau of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice on June 23 that would cut off power for 84 dressing plants, 83 iron ore fines processing plants, and 19 metallurgical industry and trade enterprises.
According to SMM survey, iron ore dressing plants in Daixian County, including state-owned ones, have received notice and halted production. There is only one state-owned iron ore enterprise in Dai County, which is an integrated enterprise of mine-concentrator's pellet plant. The open-pit mine was unaffected when other mines in the county shut down in the wake of a mine accident, but the open-pit mine has already suspended production. Its dressing plant and pellet plant have also closed due to the power outage, prompting this company to undertake annual maintenance ahead of schedule.
According to SMM estimate, the production of iron ore concentrates in Daixian County was 10.14 million mt in 2020. Driven by high profit, iron ore concentrate production from January to May this year was higher than the same period last year. However, all underground mines ceased production following the accident at the Dahongcai iron ore mine on June 10. A few dressing plants reported lower output of iron ore concentrate due to ROM shortfall. All dressing plants in the county have shut down by June 24. Hence, it is expected that the output of iron ore concentrates in the county will drop from 903,000 mt to 688,000 mt in June.
Local mines said that it is unclear when power supply will restore. Some expect power supply to restore on July 10, while others believe that power supply will not return to normal until the end of July. However, even if power supply is restored, dressing plants are unable to maintain normal production if mines remain closed. This is because many dressing plants are about to run out of ROM.
