JOHANNESBURG, Jan 19 - South African power outages have affected aluminium production at three smelters owned by mining giant BHP Billiton , the firm said on Friday.
The extent of production losses from reduced electricity at two operations in South Africa and one in Mozambique was so far unclear, spokeswomen Bronwyn Wilkinson said.
Aluminium smelters are among the biggest industrial users of power and state utility Eskom imposed limited interruptions on Thursday at the Hillside and Bayside operations in South Africa and Mozal in Mozambique.
"We wouldn't be able to quantify the production loss, we measure it over quite a long period and also we're in a closed period at the moment," she said.
Power cuts rippled across South Africa on Thursday, blacking out parts of major cities and spurring warnings from the state utility Eskom that unexpected shortages could extend into next week.
Eskom blamed the cuts on station maintenance and the shutdown of a unit at the country's only nuclear power plant.
Wilkinson had no immediate comment on whether power cuts would continue on Friday.
BHP Billiton , the world's largest diversified mining company, is the sixth biggest producer of primary aluminium.
During the quarter to end-September, Hillside produced 177,000 tonnes, Bayside produced 49,000 tonnes and the firm's attributable output at Mozal, of which Billiton owns 47 percent, was 67,000 tonnes.
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