6 New Renewables in Mining Projects

• Mining Company: Barrick Gold

• Mine: Loulo-Gounkoto Gold Mine, located 153km South from Kayes, Mali

• Renewable Energy: Hybrid Solar/Diesel Power Plant

• Date: Scheduled for Commission in Late 2020

• Details: As part of a wider cost-reduction and emissions management strategy, Barrick Gold is looking to take advantage of Mali’s abundant solar resource by installing a 24-megawatt (MW) offgrid solar hybrid plant at its Loulo-Gounkoto gold mine.

The mine, 80% owned by Barrick and 20% owned by the State of Mali, is forecast to produce 520,000-570,000 ounces of gold, at all-in sustaining costs of $810-850/oz, during 2019.

The addition of an off-grid solar photovoltaic plant will support the mine’s existing 63MW thermal power station and is expected to offset 50,000-megawatt hours per year (Wh/y) of thermal generation, saving Barrick over 10-million litres of fuel per annum and reducing the mine’s CO2 emissions by 42,000 tonnes over the same period.

The plant will employ cutting-edge weather prediction models to offset variability and allow the plant’s power management system to switch between solar and thermal generation systems without compromising the mine’s microgrid.

Barrick has already significantly cut its energy costs by utilizing hydropower generation in the Democratic Republic of Congo, local grid power in Cote d`Ivoire and heavy-fuel baseload generators at other sites in Mali.

The move towards increased use of renewable energy generation is part of a broader movement away from thermal power in Africa, where lack of reliable power transmission infrastructure has resulted in many mines needing to rely on self-generated diesel energy, making power generation their highest cost item.

Employing solar power at Loulo-Gounkoto offers both a tangible reduction on fuel costs and advances Barrick’s goal of 30% reduction in GHG emissions by 2030, from a baseline of 3.5 million tonnes of CO2e emitted during 2016.

Navilawa Coldero photo courtesy Lion One Metals

• Mining Company: Lion One Metals

• Developer/Installer/EPC: meeco Group

• Mine: Tuvatu Gold Project, Located 24km Northeast of the Town of Nadi on the Island of Viti Levu in the Republic of Fiji

• Renewable Energy: Hybrid Solar/Diesel Power Plant

• Date: Currently Not Disclosed

• Details: Canadian-based Lion One Metals have partnered with Swiss-based clean energy provider the meeco Group to build and install a hybrid solar and diesel power plant that will provide power to the Tuvatu Gold Project on the Fiji Islands.

Sitting on a sizeable gold-bearing vein system hosted in the eroded remnants of the Navilawa volcano, the Tuvatu mine represents the largest undeveloped gold project in Fiji and one of the highest-grade gold projects anywhere in the world, with a recorded resource estimate of 1.101 million tonnes.

Currently, the processing facility at Tuvatu is designed with a nominal capacity of 219,000 tonnes per year (t/y) for a nominal design rate of 600 tonnes per day (t/d) based on an overall availability of 91% with a life of mine average feed grade of 11.3 grams per tonne (g/t) of gold.

The addition of the solar hybrid plant is part of Lion One’s broader plans to build production at the site to 100,000 ounces per year (oz/y) over the next ten years.

The hybrid plant will make use of meeco’s 7MW peak “sun2live” solar power generation system. The solar plant will be coupled with diesel generators to generate up to 11MW peak power production, with the power generated from the new solar plant providing a constant 24-hour source of energy for both the gold mine and processing plant.

The plant itself, which will be built on 4.1 hectares of unused land 3.5km from the Tuvatu Gold project, will have an estimated annual energy production of approximately 10.31-gigawatt hours (GWh) displacing more than 6,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum.

Photo courtesy GoviEx

• Mining Company: GoviEx

• Developer/Installer/EPC: Windiga Energy

• Mine: Madaouela Uranium Project, Located Approximately 9km Southeast from the Town of Arlit, Niger

• Renewable Energy: Hybrid Solar/Diesel Power Plant

• Date: Feasibility Study Ongoing

Details: Canadian uranium miner GoviEx Uranium Inc has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Windiga Energy Inc that will see the companies jointly evaluate the feasibility of powering the GoviEx’s flagship Madaouela Project using a hybrid solar/diesel power generation solution.

Windiga, a Canadian-based independent power producer, is currently conducting a feasibility study into powering both the Madaouela Project and the local community through the installation of a combination of solar photovoltaics (PV) and diesel generators with a combined capacity of at least 20MW.

Located in the Southeast of Niger and connected to the so-called “uranium highway” the Madaouela Uranium Project has one of the largest sandstone-hosted uranium deposits in the world. The mining permit for extraction was awarded to GoviEx by the Niger government in early 2016 and mining operations are expected to start at the site in 2020.

Production at the sites is envisaged at 2.69 million pounds per year (Mlb/y) of U3O8 yellowcake uranium, with a 93.7% ultimate recovery and an 18-year mine life. The cash operating costs for the site sit at a predicted $31.49/lb of U3O8 including royalties.

With the introduction of a solar hybrid power plant, GoviEx expects to be able to provide sustainable, renewable power to the Madaouela mine at an approximately 25% lower cost than traditional coal-fired options currently available in Niger, allowing for substantial savings on operational costs and a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of more than 20,000 tons per annum.

Photo courtesy Gold Fields

• Mining Company: Gold Fields

• Developer/Installer/EPC: Aggreko

• Mine: The Granny Smith Gold Mine, Located 21km South of Laverton, Western Australia

• Renewable Energy: Solar/Storage

• Date: Construction to Begin in May for Completion in Q4 of 2019 Details: South African miner Gold Fields has partnered with Scottish power company Aggreko to install one of the world’s largest renewable energy microgrids as part of a solar hybrid power solution for its Granny Smith gold mine in Western Australia.

The proposed 8MW solar power generation system will comprise a renewable microgrid composed of over 20,000 solar panels, supported by a 2MW battery system. The complementary battery storage will power additional services such as photovoltaic ramp rate control, transient voltage and frequency support, and spinning reserve displacement.

The solar microgrid will be integrated with Granny Smith’s existing thermal power station, also designed and installed by Aggreko, in order to meet the site’s 24.2MW daily power requirements. 12.2MW of that power being allocated to the Wallaby underground mine and the remaining 12MW to the processing plant, associated facilities, and mining camp.

Current estimates from Aggreko forecast that, once operational, the new solar power plant could reduce fossil fuel consumption at the site by up to 13 percent, while also generating around 18GWh of clean, renewable energy each year.

The move toward solar generation at Granny Smith comes at a time when the Australian Energy Market Operator predicts that 70 percent of all coal-fired generation capacity in Southern Australia will be retired by 2040.

With the cost of PV modules falling by 3 to 8 percent each year, and commercial battery storage projected to decline from USD$250/ kWh in 2017 to USD$73/kWh by 2040, the addition of hybrid power solutions to mining sites could save operators up to 75 percent on fuel costs.

Prieska Zinc Copper Mine Site - photo courtesy of Orion Minerals

• Developer/Installer/EPC: Juwi

• Mine: The Prieska Zinc-Copper Project, Located 270 Km Southwest of Kimberley in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa

• Renewable Energy: Solar and Wind Hybrid Power Plant Date: Feasibility Study Ongoing

• Details: Orion Minerals has recently finalized a collaboration agreement with juwi, to investigate the feasibility of generating and supplying Orion’s flagship Prieska Zinc-Copper Project with renewable energy.

The Prieska Zinc-Copper mine sits on top of one of the world’s largest volcanogenic massive sulphide (VSM) ore deposits, with an established production history of over 430,000 tonnes of copper and more than 1-million tonnes of zinc.

As part of Orion’s current focus is on fast-tracking their Prieska Project to production, juwi are currently investigating the possibility of constructing a hybrid power system, using integrated wind and solar technologies, that will supply the Prieska site with 35MW of electricity.

The area around the Prieska Project is well suited to both wind and solar generation, with some of the highest irradiance levels in the country coupled with a generally hot and dry climate.

Renewable energy generation is already well established in the Kimberley region, with 190MW of solar power plants currently in operation and a 240MW of wind power projects currently under construction immediately adjacent to the Prieska Project.

The addition of a wind/solar hybrid solution will allow Orion to secure the Prieska Project’s long-term power supply security in addition to reducing the burden on the national electricity grid and reducing the project’s carbon and water footprint.

Alongside the benefits of enhanced energy security and reduced CO2 emission, the development of the renewable energy potential of the region falls in line with the Siyathemba Municipality’s Integrated Development Plans.

Orion, juwi and local government have already signed a collaboration agreement in order to maximize employment and development opportunities in the local community.

Photo courtesy Millennial Lithium Corp

Mining Company: Millennial Lithium Corp

• Developer/Installer/EPC: Ergy Solar

• Mine: Pastos Grandes Salar Lithium Brine Project, located approximately 230km west of the city of Salta in the Puna region of northwest Argentina

• Renewable Energy: Hybrid Solar/Diesel Power Plant with Battery Storage

• Date: Commissioning is expected to be completed by March 7th, 2019

• Details: Vancouver-based Millennial Lithium Corp has contracted Salta-based Ergy Solar to install and commission an integrated solar PV, battery storage and backup conventional power system for an on-site permanent Project Center at its Pastos Grandes Salar Lithium Brine Project.

The Project Center will include a fully equipped accommodation camp for up to 100 people, an on-site laboratory and a process plant which is expected to be commissioned in Q2, 2019.

In an effort to reduce both power cost and CO2 emission, the Project Center will be powered by 540 (1,050 square meters) photovoltaic panels of 330-watt peak capacity (Wp) each totaling 178.2 kilowatt-power (KWp) of solar power. The solar panels will be hybridized with a 500 kilowatt-hour (kWh) maximum storage bank of batteries and two low-emission diesel generators.

A “smart” central controller will manage the solar hybrid system in order to optimize power output to the Project Center. The PV panels and battery system will be able to provide power to the Center at maximum capacity for more than 18 hours of the 24-hour cycle. The diesel generator back-up will be used only during select peak energy consumption periods and rare non-sun events.

The proposed solar hybrid system will be the first of its kind in the Puna region of Northen Argentina and will allow Millennial to both reduce CO2 emissions from the Pastos Grandes Salar and significantly reduce the project’s operating costs.