INDEPENDENCE GROUP ( IGO )
Zenith Pacific and Solea of Germany , is providing a state of the art hybrid generating station under a buildown-operate-maintain contract that means IGO will bear no capital cost . The first phase of a 20 MW diesel-fired plant was commissioned at the end of March . The second phase is expected to come on stream in October , and at the same time work will commence work on a 7MW electro voltaic solar plant . The use of solar power will save 8,000 tonnes of CO2 a year as well as more than three million litres of diesel and the associated road trains to bring it to site . In all , the power component of the Nova nickel mine will set the standard for future remote hybrid power stations . This is the first time a project of this nature in Australia has been commercially viable and not reliant on subsidies or grants .
Christmas this year will be a significant milestone for Independence Group as it celebrates first production from Nova , and as the deposit ’ s full name is Nova-Bollinger there ’ s no prize for guessing how Peter Bradford , his teams and contractors will toast it . But the mine ’ s slated ten year life is far from the end of the story . The Long nickel deposit was all but exhausted on acquisition but is still productive more than a decade later ,
72 August 2016