Chilean mining giant Antofagasta is taking significant steps to increase the amount of renewable energy being used by its operations.
Currently, around 21 percent of all Antofagasta’s power comes from renewables, with that number increasing to over 50 percent at their main mining site at Los Pelambres. Not willing to rest on its environmental laurels, Antofagasta has recently signed an agreement with electricity producer Colbún that will see its Zaldívar copper mine run solely on renewable energy by 2020.
As mineral concentrations in Chile decrease, Antofagasta faces the same issue affecting miners the world over, the need to process more ore to extract the same amount of metal and the energy cost of that extra processing.
By increasing the amount of renewable energy being used to power their mining sites, Antofagasta is able to take advantage of Chile’s extremely competitive renewable energy prices, affecting material cost savings on energy while reaping the added benefits of integration renewables, such as reduced carbon emissions and increased social license to operate. Antofagasta’s switch to clean energy is expected to reduce their overall emissions by the equivalent of 350,000 tonnes of greenhouse gasses. Read the full story HERE.