Sun-drenched miners look to the skies to cut fuel costs in half

By David Stringer and Paul Allen
Updated August 28 2015 - 9:18am, first published 8:34am
Miners including Rio Tinto and Newmont are installing solar plants, betting they'll deliver long-term savings.
Miners including Rio Tinto and Newmont are installing solar plants, betting they'll deliver long-term savings.

The DeGrussa copper and gold mine in the sun-scorched outback is getting a solar farm, the latest example of the mining industry embracing clean energy.

The plant will replace about 5 million litres of diesel a year, a fifth of the mine's energy needs. Energy generated by the system may eventually cost about half that of diesel-generated power, according to Sandfire Resources, the deposit's owner.

Miners including Rio Tinto are installing new solar plants from Chile to South Africa, betting they'll deliver long-term savings even as tumbling oil prices cut power costs. The global solar-power market for mining companies may grow to about $US2 billion ($2.8 billion) a year by 2022 from about $US42 million in 2013, according to Navigant Consulting.

"Solar-power providers are specifically targeting mines right now and it's about replacing diesel," said Dexter Gauntlett, a senior research analyst at Navigant in Portland, Oregon. With lower costs, "it becomes a no-brainer," he said.

Solar options

Miners are joining chemical producers, steelmakers and others in seeking to replace traditional power sources with renewable energy. 

ArcelorMittal, the biggest steelmaker, said last month it plans to use waste gases to produce low-carbon fuel for vehicles. Explosives maker Incitec Pivot has experimented with solar-powered offices at remote sites.

In the southern Indian state of Kerala, Cochin International Airport is the world's first to be run exclusively on solar energy, according to Bosch Ltd.

Rio Tinto, the second-largest mining company, is completing the construction of a demonstration solar farm at its Weipa bauxite operation in Queensland with US companies First Solar and Ingenero.

Barrick Gold has solar-power generation at a mine in Nevada, while Newmont Mining is investigating solar options at its Tanami gold mine in the Northern Territory. In Chile, Abengoa has installed a 10-megawatt solar project at an Antofagasta copper mine in the Atacama Desert, and said in March it's in discussions with mining companies to add more plants.

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