Credit: Mining NewsIn an effort to create a leaner cost structure, Shanta Gold’s CEO, Eric Zurrin, has set a cost-saving target of $7 million in annual savings, expected to be executed by Q3, 2018. In order to create those cost-savings, the AIM-listed gold producer has invested in a solar hybrid power plant to provide it’s New Luika mine in Tanzania with reliable, low cost, electricity.
In addition to the mine’s existing 7.5 MW heavy fuel oil (HFO) power plant, Shanta Gold partnered with German solar power specialists Redavia to deploy a new 609 kilowatt (kW) solar plant on the site in early 2017.
The new solar plant, in addition to the 63 kilowatt power (kWp) solar pilot plant deployed in 2014, produces a combined 1040000 kilowatt hours (kWh) per year, supplying on average more than 1500 kWh per kWp, about 10% of the company’s power needs.
In addition to fuel savings of 250,000 litres per year, the new solar plant is expected to reduce CO2 emissions from the mine by 350 tons per year and provide reliable energy generation in a country with high kilowatt per hour energy costs and an unstable national power grid that faces regularly occurring brownouts and blackouts. You can read the full article HERE.