Newcrest Mining to buy wind power to run Cadia gold mine from 2024
Newcrest Mining joins renewables rush, saying it will buy more than 200 megawatts of wind power a year.
Newcrest Mining has joined the renewables rush in the mining sector, saying it will buy more than 200 megawatts of wind power a year to run its massive Cadia gold mine from 2024.
Newcrest said on Wednesday it had struck a deal with Tilt Renewables, the owners of the underdevelopment Rye Park wind farm just outside of Yass in NSW, to supply more than 40 per cent of Cadia’s annual power consumption when the wind farm starts providing power to the grid in 2024.
The 15 year agreement is on rates “competitive” with alternative sources of energy, Newcrest said, and the deal is expected to slash 20 per cent from Cadia’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
The deal will also underpin Tilt Renewables’ efforts to win financing for the wind farm, where it hopes to begin construction in late 2021.
Newcrest said the power deal will act as a partial hedge against future electricity price increases and will also provide it with access to large-scale generation certificates which it intends to surrender to achieve a reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
Newcrest managing director Sandeep Biswas said the deal was a critical step in work to cut its group carbon emissions by 30 per cent by 2030.
“This new contract secures renewable energy for our Cadia operations, reduces carbon emissions and helps us maintain competitive energy costs,” he said.
Newcrest is the latest miner to seek renewable energy contracts to reduce carbon emissions and lower energy costs.
Remote mines run by majors such as Fortescue Metals Group, Rio Tinto, BHP, South32 and Gold Fields, as well as those run by mid-tier miners such as Sandfire Resources and IGO, have all looked to renewable energy to partially supply the needs of power-hungry processing plants over the last few years.
Fortescue has gone a step further, with founder and chairman Andrew Forrest using its recent annual shareholder meeting to announce an ambitious plan to turn the iron ore miner into the world’s biggest renewable energy provider, telling shareholders he wants the company to eventually produce 235 gigawatts of renewable energy, or five times the current capacity of Australia’s National Energy Market.
On Wednesday Fortescue said it had joined forces with South Korean industrial major POSCO to jointly develop “green” hydrogen plants to power the operations of both companies.
Newcrest shares closed up 26c to $36.93. Fortescue rose 49c to $21.97.
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