CRADLE TO GRAVE
HYBRID SOLUTIONS POWER
REMOTE MINES
Lewis told African Mining at the recent 2020 Investing in
African Mining Indaba that Aggreko recently signed a contract
with Resolute Mining’s Syama gold mine in southern Mali to
support the mine’s ambitions to reduce carbon emissions and
improve overall efficiency for the site. “Once installed, Aggreko
will operate and maintain a 40MW thermal power plant and
a 10MW battery storage system, with a further 20MW of solar
power planned in 2023. The hybrid solution will reduce Syama’s
power costs by an estimated 40%. Once all the renewable power
sources are fully installed it will also reduce carbon emissions by
approximately 20%,” Lewis explained.
Last year, Aggreko began the construction of one of the
world’s largest renewable energy microgrids for Gold Fields’
CONVEYOR VS TRUCK
In the mining, quarrying and cement industries, transporting
bulk materials efficiently, and environmentally friendly, from
the pit to their destination is essential. According to Dr Andreas
Echelmeyer, compared to trucks, conveyor belts are often
more energy-efficient and can be adjusted to the structure of
the premises. They are also able to safely handle steep sloping
routes, rivers or road crossings. The system provider determines
the optimum conveying route, then takes over project planning
and installation,” says Echelmeyer.
Syama mine in southern Mali.
Granny Smith gold mine in Western Australia. The 8MW
solar power generation system integrates 20 000 solar
panels supported by a 2MW /1MWh battery. The microgrid
is projected to reduce fuel consumption by 10-13% – the
equivalent of removing 2 000 cars from the road – and
produce about 18GWh of clean energy per year.
well: new roads and access roads have a serious impact on the
landscape. And then there's fuel consumption. The emissions
caused by truck traffic are high, both with regard to toxic
substances and noise and dust," says Echelmeyer.
At Yadong Cement in China, Beumer’s conveyor belts were a lot
more efficient that a fleet of trucks. " The belt conveying systems
require almost 90% less primary energy than comparable truck
transports", Echelmeyer explains, and refers to the concrete
project-related comparison. “Trucks operated with diesel fuel
require a specific primary energy of 11.4kwh for each ton of
transported material. The belt conveying system, which was
built later on required, on the contrary, only 1.44 kwh.
If, as in this case, 7.5 million tons of raw material is transported
annually, the use of belt conveyors means a total saving of
74 million kwh per year. This corresponds to a yearly energy
consumption of more than 20 000 single-family houses. This
can be noticed also from a monetary viewpoint: solely by saving
diesel fuel, the operational costs of the company are reduced by
more than EUR5.5-million per year.
For Echelmeyer, using conveyor belts makes a lot more
sense than using trucks, which are still frequently used for
transporting bulk materials over long distances. “Depending on
the nature of the terrain, trucks can rapidly reach their limits;
trucks require well-developed roads and fuel, for example, and
the costs of construction, maintenance and possible extensions
are significant. The ecological aspect needs to be considered as
For remote mines in Africa, hybrid power solutions can be up
to 30% cheaper than running thermal generators alone. This is
according to John Lewis, managing director at Aggreko Africa.
Bulk materials need to be transported efficiently from pit to stockpile.
www. africanmining.co.za
African Mining Publication
African Mining
African Mining March 2020
45