Speaking at the Hydrogen and Mines virtual conference, Anglo American’s head of technology development, mining and sustainability Julian Soles said the mining industry would need to adopt diverse technologies in its drive to decarbonize operations.
Anglo American is targeting carbon neutrality across all operations by 2040, according to Soles.
He said the company was pushing for decarbonizing its key emission areas of grid power sourced from coal-fired power stations; diesel consumption in large mining vehicles; and diluted coalbed methane from its coal mines.
He revealed that the company consumes about one billion liters of diesel annually.
However, the strategies chosen by the company would have to ensure reliability of energy supply because the mines need to run on a 24/7 basis, Soles said.
Furthermore, being in a commodities business, cost control is extremely important for Anglo American. The solutions would therefore need to be cost-effective – a point of paramount consideration.
Again, decarbonizing solutions would have to take into account the geographical location and layout of the individual mines, there being no “one size that fits all,” because mines differ on routes, climate and altitude.
“Different mines have different limitations of where we put infrastructure due to geology, and several of them are constantly evolving,” Soles said.
“So that means putting fixed infrastructure in the pit is something we typically try to avoid.”
Source: Mining Weekly
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