Zambia power firm CEC restores power to mines after blackout

* Zambia hit by national blackout on Monday

* Mining firms affected, losses unquantifiable yet (Recasts with power restored, fresh KCM comment)

By Chris Mfula

LUSAKA, April 28 (Reuters) - Zambia's Copperbelt Energy Corp. (CEC) said on Tuesday it had restored electricity to its mining customers after a blackout on Monday night forced Vedanta Resources (Other OTC: VDNRF - news) ' unit to halt production.

Electricity was restored to Vedanta's Konkola Copper Mines (KCM), Glencore (Xetra: A1JAGV - news) 's Mopani Copper Mines and Chibuluma mine, a unit of South Africa's Metorex owned by China's Jinchuan Group, CEC spokeswoman Chama Nsabika said.

"The power supply situation has been normalised as of this afternoon," she told Reuters.

Despite the restoration of the power supply, KCM spokesman Shapi Shachinda said it was unclear when production would resume at the Vedanta unit, which runs an open pit, an underground mine and a copper smelting plant.

Production at both the Nchanga underground mine and the Konkola mine has been suspended. Shachinda said it could take at least three days to pump water from some of the flooded areas at the Konkola mine.

Operations at KCM's copper processing plant also ceased and the impact on output and financial losses will be felt across the company, he said. He could not immediately give an estimate of the losses.

"The extent of damage to (electrical) equipment will be quantified," Shachinda added.

KCM activated its emergency 24 megawatt generator at Konkola mine and received an additional 46 MW from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo through Copperbelt Energy Corp. (CEC) to service key areas, he said.

Barrick Gold (Hanover: ABR.HA - news) 's Lumwana mine and First Quantum Minerals Kansanshi mine, which get power directly from Zambia's state-ownded power company Zesco, could not immediately comment,

Zesco spokesman Henry Kapata said almost the entire country had lost its electricity supply on Monday night following "a system disturbance" which was still being investigated.

KCM said last week it would continue to lose money after the cabinet set the royalty tax rate for copper mining at 9 percent and a corporate income tax rate of 30 percent. (Editing by James Macharia and Gareth Jones)