BHP’s Olympic Dam copper, gold, and uranium mine in South Australia (Credit: Aaron Bunch, via the Australian Business Review.) BHP Billiton chief executive Andrew Mackenzie is slamming renewable energy after a three-week outage at the firm’s Olympic Dam copper and uranium mine in South Australia that cost the company $US105 million. “Let’s talk about affordability, reliability Read More
Credit: Shooter's Bottom wind turbine at dusk (Sharon Loxton) / CC BY-SA 2.0 Major players in global mining are beginning to acknowledge that environmental sustainability is key to business sustainability, and lead the industry toward a low-carbon future. London-based Rio Tinto, for example, outlines 10 ways it’s pushing forward on this front. These include: Signing the Paris Pledge for Read More
Large-scale commercial solar is beginning to make headway in Australia. Zinc metals producer Sun Metals has announced it will build a 100MW solar PV plant to support its refinery located near Townsville, northern Queensland. The project already marks the largest commitment to renewable energy by a major Australian company, and it may increase in size to Read More
Renewable energy sources have been slow to penetrate the mining sector, largely because they’re capital-intensive and stationary. But that may be beginning to change. Flexibility is important in the industry. A mine can be shut down if commodity prices fall. The company that owns it can then easily relocate fossil fuel-based generators. In contrast, Solar PV infrastructure Read More
India’s energy giant Adani, which is trying to build Australia’s largest thermal coal mine, has secured land for two solar farms worth A$400 million ($300 million) in Queensland and South Australia. The projects will kickstart the company’s five-year plan to install 1,500 MW of solar power plants in Australia. The energy conglomerate is planning to build Read More
A feasibility study conducted to analyze a conversion of a former underground gold mine into a hydro storage plant in Kidston, Australia, found that the idea was commercially viable and the project could open as soon as 2018. https://twitter.com/ARENA_aus/status/795755303673307136 The site is run by Genex, a power generating development company based in Australia. The study released Read More
Carbon price regulations are boosting the case for renewables at mine sites by making them more financially viable, says one of Newmont Mining Corporation’s chief metallurgists, Frank Roberto. “Right now, without considering the cost of carbon, we default to the traditional sources of power. But, with the cost of carbon factored in, that gives us the Read More
Australia is getting its first grid-connected solar and storage plant, which will be built in the northern Queensland town of Lakeland and connected to Ergon Energy network. Conergy is developing the US$42 million project, with the BHP Billiton resource company joining in via a Knowledge Sharing Partnership (KSP). Others involved in the KSP are the Australian Read More
An interesting article posted today in The Conversation discusses how the use of renewables, solar PV and CSP in particular, are ideal for use in Australian mining; not only in the operations but also the processing. The article highlights a recent study by CSIRO (Commonwealth Scientific Industrial and Research Organization) on the use of CSP in high Read More
June 29, 2016 ---- Energy and Mines is delighted to announce the launch of its Energy and Mines World Congress in association with Lightsource Renewable Energy. The Congress will take place November 21-22 at the Hilton Toronto and will bring together an international audience of mining, renewables, government and finance experts. This is the 4th annual Read More
