The supply just keeps getting tighter and tighter...

Regards - VHF

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South Africa's March Mining Output Falls 17% on Power

By Antony Sguazzin and Ron Derby

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- South Africa, the world's biggest precious metals producer, said mining output fell 17 percent in March on power shortages.

Gold production dropped 11 percent from a year earlier, Pretoria-based Statistics South Africa, the national statistics agency, said today on its Web site. Non-gold output plunged 18 percent.

``The curtailment of electricity to the industry has had an impact,'' Roger Baxter, chief economist at the Chamber of Mines, said by phone from Johannesburg today.

Most mines in South Africa were shut for five days from Jan. 25 and rationed afterwards to prevent state-run Eskom Holdings Ltd.'s power network from collapsing. The utility has since restricted power supplies to major industrial users after the government delayed giving it permission to expand for four years. Curbs will last until at least 2012.

Gold Fields Ltd., Africa's second-biggest gold producer, last week reported a 14 percent drop in output in the quarter to March 31. Smaller Johannesburg-based rival Harmony Gold Mining Co. said quarterly production fell 17 percent.