MinRes to put lithium mine on ice, to cut 300 jobs
The company will put its Bald Hill lithium mine in Western Australia under care and maintenance starting this week.
The decarbonization of Gold Field’s Granny Smith mine in Western Australia began almost eight years ago with Aggreko replacing the existing diesel power station with a high-speed, gas-fuelled reciprocating engine station.
Aggreko further advanced the mine’s power system in 2019 by adding 7.7 MWp solar and 2 MW/1 MWh BESS of renewable generation. Now in 2024, Aggreko is set to expand the solar farm and BESS, further reducing the carbon intensity of Granny Smith mine and the overall power cost for Gold Fields.
The company won the original contract to build, own and operate the power station in 2016. Since then, Aggreko has worked with Gold Fields to expand and decarbonize the mine’s power system adding increased gas engine capacity along with a solar farm and BESS.
Once expanded, the gold mine will have a total of 19 MW of solar capacity and 9 MW/4.5 MWh of BESS capacity installed. This will result in a renewable energy fraction of approximately 21%, saving 443,304 gigajoules of gas and 22,843 tonnes of CO2 emissions per annum.
“Aggreko’s focus is on efficiency and reliability in line with the power demand over the life of the mine, as well as contributing to the decarbonization of the region,” Aggreko APAC managing director George Whyte said in a news release.
Aggreko’s ESG strategy is underpinned by two goals: Net zero emissions from facilities and operations by 2035 and a 30% reduction in the emissions intensity of energy solutions by 2030. These environmental commitments sit alongside the company’s social and governance commitments: investing in its own skills and communities and being an ethical and transparent business.
The solar farm expansion comes ahead of Gold Fields conducting a pre-feasibility study, investigating how it could go on to generate 75% of Granny Smith’s energy requirements from renewable sources, including increased solar, a larger battery, and a wind farm later in the decade.
Granny Smith general manager Mark Glazebrook, said the expansion of the solar farm and battery storage system marked a significant milestone for the site.
“The expanded hybrid power station not only makes our operation more cost efficient and improves energy reliability, but it also demonstrates our commitment to accelerate renewable usage across all Gold Fields sites,” he said. “This is a great step forward in Granny Smith’s decarbonization journey as we seek to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and deliver on our ESG commitments.”
In 2019, Granny Smith was one of the first mines in Australia to add renewable generation, establishing Aggreko as a market leader in microgrid hybridization. Since operational, the solar farm and BESS has produced approximately 48 GWh of clean energy, preventing 25 million tonnes of CO2 emissions.
