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LON - Lonmin - Update on South African Power Situation Lonmin Plc (Incorporated in England and Wales) (Registered in the Republic of South Africa under registration number 1969/000015/10) JSE code: LON Issuer Code: LOLMI & ISIN: GB0031192486 ("Lonmin") 29 January 2008 Update on South African Power Situation On Friday 25 January 2008, Lonmin received a communication from Eskom confirming they had declared force majeure and requesting that Lonmin reduce power consumption at its operations to the minimum load. In order to ensure the safety of our employees and to comply with Eskom`s request, production from our mining and concentrating operations was stopped from 10.00 am on Friday morning with only critical safety systems remaining operational. Our smelting and refining operations continued to operate on reduced power with a resultant drop in throughput. Following a meeting with key customers this morning, Eskom has confirmed the following: - that it will be lifting the current force majeure; - we can increase power supply at our operations to a maximum of 80% of the typical load profile with immediate effect; - it is envisaged that power supply will increase to 90% of the typical load later in the week; - that it will guarantee at least four hours notice of any future load shedding; and - that it will take four weeks to fully stabilise the power supply network. We are now in the process of restarting our mining and concentrating operations. In total we estimate the production lost during this power related shutdown will be around 15,000 saleable ounces of Platinum. Given the reduced levels of concentrate in our stock pipeline and in order to make optimal use of the reduced power supply in the short term we have brought forward our planned maintenance shutdown of the number one furnace previously scheduled for February. The furnace is now offline and is currently expected to be down for three weeks. During this period we will run our Merensky furnace. Going forward, Eskom has requested all customers to reduce their power consumption by 10% of the typical load for the foreseeable future. In the light of this we will be reviewing our operations to see how we can best maximise our output under this power constraint. It will take time to fully assess the future production implications of this power reduction. PGMs are globally strategic metals for a number of crucial applications worldwide. Given the importance of South Africa`s role in the PGM market, the security of power supply remains a strategic issue for the industry. We are committed to improving our power efficiency and to working with Eskom and the South African Government to ensure the power necessary to produce the PGMs needed to meet growing global demand. Enquiries: Alex Shorland-Ball +44 (0)20 7201 6060 Vice President, Investor Relations & Communications Date: 30/01/2008 07:27:09 Supplied by www.sharenet.co.za Produced by the JSE SENS Department. The SENS service is an information dissemination service administered by the JSE Limited (`JSE`). The JSE does not, whether expressly, tacitly or implicitly, represent, warrant or in any way guarantee the truth, accuracy or completeness of the information published on SENS. The JSE, their officers, employees and agents accept no liability for (or in respect of) any direct, indirect, incidental or consequential loss or damage of any kind or nature, howsoever arising, from the use of SENS or the use of, or reliance on, information disseminated through SENS.
