ensure businesses have access to renewable power at a competitive cost, which is critical to support the future growth of the Pilbara and of the State,” notes Cribb at Connect Zero. The Western Australian government is also exploring a similar initiative to develop shared infrastructure for renewable power generation, battery storage, and desalination assets in the Northern Gold Fields mining epicentre. Before wrapping up its activities, the Electric Mine Consortium backed this project, which could include the creation of a microgrid between three large mine sites and two renewable energy generation hubs to connect more mine sites to Western Australia’s south- west power grid. “The hubs have the potential to form a private network stretching over 700 km from inland Western Australia (Kalgoorlie) all the way to coastal regional centres like Geraldton,” the consortium noted last September. For Carr at IGO, this type of collaboration is a “game changer”: “Now, if I’m looking at putting in an islanded power station, and I’ve got 30 years of life in those wind generator towers, when my mine’s finished in 10 years, I can sell that power into the grid. It means now I can take the unit rate of amortizing the capital over its full life, not over a third,” he says, adding that this would be a great opportunity for the government to “step in and underwrite a transmission line”. ENERGY STORAGE AND ENGAGEMENT WITH TRADITIONAL OWNERS This acceleration of renewable power for Australian mines is likely to drive two significant operational and governance changes. First, it will support the commercialisation of long- duration energy storage such as flow batteries. “At the moment, with our current renewable penetration, shorter ratio storage makes perfect sense commercially. But as we increase the renewable penetration above 75%, it won’t work anymore, and we will need long duration storage so that the lights don’t go out at night,” explains Thomas Nann, CEO of flow battery firm Allegro Energy. While lithium-ion batteries currently have the economic advantage as a mature technology enjoying an economy of scale, flow batteries are already more
cost-effective for energy storage duration of more than eight hours. Allegro is working to push this down to around two hours: the company is about to start its first commercial pilot with Australian utility Origin Energy, and is benefiting from the support of government incentives like the Battery Breakthrough Initiative, which will allocate A$523 million to domestic battery manufacturers, helping to de-risk projects. The other shift resulting from miners’ focus on decarbonised energy is deeper engagement with traditional owners. “Land access plays a vital role in renewable energy projects due to their large spatial footprint requirements when compared to other forms of power generation. Therefore, it’s essential to establish strong, respectful relationships with traditional landowners and communities,” explains Cribb. This means miners are now going beyond basic consultations and engaging Indigenous peoples across many aspects of a mine’s operational life. “There are a number of very successful traditional owner enterprises and companies working with mining companies, particularly in rehabilitation, in environmental management, and I can only see that growing and it being more successful,” says Foster at De Grey. The more authentic the collaboration with traditional owners becomes, the more deeply sustainability considerations will be embedded into mining operations. So while it may seem like decarbonisation is less of a business priority in a challenging economic climate, there are undeniable positive shifts happening in the Australian mining sector – shifts that could herald the new era of sustainable mining.
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lower cost of renewable energy (which Fortescue will use to power its equipment) compared to diesel, as well as lower maintenance costs. This expectation was confirmed by the now disbanded Electric Mine Consortium in its final report, which found that electric mines could achieve a 10-30% overall reduction in operating costs, including up to 50% energy cost reduction, 20% maintenance cost reduction, and 30% ventilation cost reduction. FROM LOW-HANGING FRUIT TO GAME CHANGER With the largest cost savings coming from energy, it’s clear that the electrification business case only works if equipment is powered with renewable energy – and this is exactly where miners’ focus on the ‘low-hanging fruit’ of decarbonisation becomes an investment in long-term ambition. The business case for renewables is now clear: “If you’ve got 10 to 15 years of mine life, you can put in solar, wind, and up to four hours battery storage, and I think you’d get up to 90% renewable penetration,” says Carr at IGO. That is in addition to the safety and environmental cases.
Even mines with shorter lives can adopt renewables thanks to new solutions such as redeployable solar panels. David Griffin, CEO of 5B, explains: “Fluctuating commodity prices create uncertainty over mine life. Renewable energy infrastructure may have a design life that significantly exceeds mine life. 5B’s prefabricated solar array, the ‘Maverick’ addresses this concern through reduced capex and being redeployable. Our off-grid customers will often factor in the ability to simply redeploy the system when considering project economics utilising the Maverick’s 30-year design life.” And when it comes to renewable power, Australian miners and policymakers are now thinking bigger than ever before: coming together to create a regional grid in the Pilbara. The Pilbara Energy Transition Plan aims to facilitate the development of common use transmission infrastructure connecting off-grid mines and renewable power projects in the region. “The benefits of an integrated approach include distributing the capital investment across multiple users and beneficiaries, delivering system optimisation through commonality in infrastructure design and providing joint representation to lobby government on regulatory changes that may be required. This will also
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