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IAMGOLD (TSX:IMG) is taking a further step towards diversifying its power needs into renewable energy, with a plan to install a 15-megawatt-peak (MWp) solar power plant at its Essakane mine in Burkina Faso.
Announced yesterday, the Toronto-based company has signed a power purchase agreement to begin developing the solar plant at the gold mine, located about 330 kilometres northeast of the Burkinabe capital city, Ouagadougou. The 15-year deal is between IAMGOLD Essakane SA, EREN Renewable Energy SA, AREN ENERGY (PTY) Ltd. and Essakane Solar SAS.
The mine is 90% owned by IAMGOLD and 10% by the Burkina Faso government. It produces about 400,000 gold ounces a year.
The solar plant, expected to be commissioned by the end of 2017, would be operated by Essakane Solar SAS. Electricity produced from it will be sold to IAMGOLD Essakane SA.
Using solar is a way for IAMGOLD to cut its diesel use and lower its carbon footprint – a path it started in 2014 with a 5MW solar plant installed at its Rosebel gold mine in Suriname.
The company says the transition to processing hard ore at the mine has increased energy consumption from about 14 gigawatt hours a month in 2013, to 26 GWh/month in 2015. The solar plant will complement an existing 57MW heavy fuel oil power plant, allowing savings of around 6 million litres of fuel a year and a reduction of 18,500 tonnes of carbon dioxide, annually.
“Hybrid power systems enable energy intensive industries, such as mines, to reduce fuel consumption, decrease energy costs, protect against fuel price volatility, as well as improve their social and environmental footprint by cutting greenhouse gas emissions and boosting local employment,” said IAMGOLD president and CEO Steve Letwin. “This 15 MWp solar project may only be the beginning for our Essakane mine, but IAMGOLD is already well on its way to increase the proportion of renewables to 15% of its total energy needs within three to five years.”
According to Mining Weekly the project is EREN’s second utility-scale project in Africa and will be one of the largest hybrid diesel solar photovoltaic projects in the world.
6 Comments
Ben
Essakane mine produces 377 000 onces in 2016 and is forcasting to produce between 370 000 to 380 000 onces this year.
atopf
Apologies, text has been corrected.
Andrew Topf, MINING.com
Bill_Wall
What are the economics for this? How much is IAMGold paying for the power? Did this require capital? Is the reduction in diesel greater than what they are paying for power? Their news release was short on this information too. Perhaps it just isn’t material information.
Matthew A Brook
Bill,
In a lot of that part of Africa everything is diesel gensets so their power costs are over 30c/kwhr. Combined solar/wind hybrid systems have costs that are under 15c/kwhr. If you use your diesel systems for backup it makes a lot of dollars and sense. But mining companies are doing this for the savings not for the environment.
Steve_Ohr
Happening in Chile, as well:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/chile-mines-turn-to-renewable-energy-1439337896
Calvin Woosnam
Too bad old technology solar was used, increasing cost but lowering output per acre, EarthStar Energy is delivering DPP(tm) technology to West Africa with Trackers and Storage systems for 24hr power at lower cost.