JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) – Mining operations across South Africa are shutting down after flash flooding caused the largest power blackouts in more than a decade, threatening a key export sector in a further blow to the country’s already slowing economy.

Heavy rains across parts of South Africa have submerged whole neighborhoods, leading to mass evacuations and aggravating problems at state-owned utility Eskom, which has been struggling to keep the lights on since 2008.

Harmony Gold, Impala Platinum, and Sibanye-Stillwater all said they had been forced to cut production since Monday owing to power shortages.

“There are very few underground mines that operated overnight and will be operating normally today,” said a spokesman for the Minerals Council, an industry body.

The mining industry contributed 350.8 billion rand ($23.85 billion) to the South African economy in 2018, according to the Minerals Council, around 7% of gross domestic product (GDP).

Eskom on Monday cut up to 6,000 megawatts (MW) of power from the national grid after heavy rain and flooding triggered failures at its 4,800 MW Medupi coal fired plant.

It said on Tuesday it planned more load-shedding – a South African term for planned power cuts – but added the crisis was manageable.

“The ongoing load shedding is devastating for the country … causing our economy great harm and disrupting the lives of citizens,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement on Tuesday. “The energy challenges in this country will not be resolved overnight.”

‘MANAGEABLE CRISIS’

Harmony Gold called off its underground shifts, saying they would resume as soon as Eskom could provide assurances the power supply would be more reliable, while Impala Platinum stopped production at its Rustenberg and Marula mines after it was left functioning at 20%-30% of normal power.

It later added that losses already amounted to 120 million rand.

“We certainly can’t risk any attempt at production with this level of power,” a spokesman for the platinum miner said.

Anglo American said its operations had been affected but gave no further details. The company mines coal, diamonds, iron ore, and platinum in South Africa through its businesses De Beers, Kumba Iron Ore and Anglo American Platinum.

Sibanye-Stillwater shut all its deep-level mines on Monday but was aiming to send miners back underground for the afternoon shift on Tuesday at 1400 GMT.

A Gold Fields spokesman said the impact on its South Deep mine has been ‘limited’ so far, but prolonged power cuts at the current frequency would present challenges.

Petra Diamonds Ltd said on Monday it was in the process halting operations at its Cullinan, Finsch and Koffiefontein mines in South Africa after Eskom asked the miner to reduce its electricity load.

“The outlook for this week is to maintain load shedding because of the weather, because of the coal handling challenges that we’ve got,” Eskom’s chief operations officer Jan Oberholzer told the eNCA news channel, adding that a number of production units were also broken down.

“We believe it is a manageable crisis,” Oberholzer said. “Four thousand megawatts of the problem we had yesterday was due to flooding.”

South Africa’s GDP shrank 0.6% in the third quarter, the second contraction this year, partly in response to the power supply uncertainty, and the country is on the verge of losing its last investment-grade credit rating.

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