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ADU ReVIeW

The cost of decarbonisation

hen Africa Down Under was last there’s nothing cheaper than solar power. like DeGrussa and some other projects in
Wconvened in its traditional format It’s a win-win for everyone.” Africa for that level of trust to come up. It’s
three years ago, it is unlikely decarboni- Juwi Renewables Pty Ltd global direc- also taken the technology time to catch up,
sation would have been part of any major tor of hybrid Dave Manning estimated the there wasn’t a great deal of battery invert-
discussion. In 2022, almost every ers around 10 years ago, or even five
mining company globally is talking years ago. We had to develop those
about net zero emissions. products and get them working and
Some of the world’s biggest min- get them reliable.”
ing houses – including BHP Ltd, However, De Cartetet warned
Rio Tinto Ltd, Vale SA and Glen- companies often needed to have a
core – have committed to achiev- decent amount of mine life in front of
ing carbon-free status across their them at a particular operation to justi-
global mining portfolios by 2050, or fy the purchase of renewable energy
earlier in most cases. Even up-and- systems.
coming miners such as Bellevue “With solar panels, you really want
Gold Ltd have pledged to be net- to get a decent payback, so you’ve
zero producers from first gold pour. got to have a mine life at least 18-
The question which continues 25 years,” he said. “In the beginning
to dominate most conversations is when you first open a mine, usually
whether it’s realistically possible for quite often you’re very conservative
all resources companies to meet about the resource, so it might only
those ambitious targets for decar- be a 10-year life of mine…but if you’re
bonised projects in the timeframes Dave Manning (Juwi Renewables) and Mosa Mabuza (Council only using it for 10, it makes the eco-
promised. of Geoscience South Africa) nomics super tough.”
Decarbonology founder Michelle Council of Geoscience South Afri-
Rhodes certainly thinks so. 10MW solar hybrid farm at Sandfire Re- ca chief executive Mosa Mabuza said indi-
“Yes, we can achieve it. It’s just a matter sources Ltd’s DeGrussa copper mine in vidual countries have a critical role to play in
of cracking on, and cracking on quickly,” Western Australia would now cost just $15 meeting net zero targets and urged political
Rhodes said during a wide-ranging panel million to build, compared to the $50 million leaders around the world to offer incentives
discussion on decarbonisation at or enforce higher carbon taxes to en-
Africa Down Under. courage greater appetite for alterna-
“It’s an opportunity for our mining tive energy sources.
companies – they are leaders – but “We need to take a step back and
they’re only a portion of the emis- look at the economics and look at
sions globally. We need, as part of what instruments do we pull in order
our social licence to operate, for for us to achieve the common objec-
our mining firms to really continue tives,” Mabuza said.
to lead the way so that we can get “That encourages everybody –
this world decarbonised as quickly mining industry, society, government
as possible.” and everybody else – to deliver the
Solarcentury Africa head Jason win-win that we all desire.”
De Carteret said the current uptake Rhodes said greater collaboration
for decarbonisation strategies by between mining companies and gov-
resources companies was “huge”, ernment officials from both Australia
predicting the industry would ex- and Africa could also help unlock
perience a seismic shift in mental- some of the ongoing decarbonisation
ity similar to the upheaval in safety challenges.
policies decades ago. Michelle Rhodes (Decarbonology) and Jason De Carteret “I think we’ve all got to lean into this
“When I go to mines, the amount (Solarcentury Africa) problem globally, there’s no point one
of toolbox talks and safety talks is country doing work one way and an-
fantastic and I think what we’re going to see forked out for construction more than five other doing it another way,” she said.
is that shift of energy and focus on to the years ago. “Certainly, there’s a real opportunity for
ESG and on to the renewable energy,” De “The cost curve has come down dramati- Africa to be a leader in this space when you
Carteret said. cally, but the other big factor is reliability on look at the abundant solar energy, the ben-
“There were lots of companies that came a mine site,” Manning explained. “A typical efits to the communities…we really need
to us maybe two years ago, but financially it off-grid mine site is looking for about 99.8% to put soils at the front, communities at the
wasn’t maybe as good as it is now. But re- reliability, that’s higher than the grid. front and not think about these projects in
newable energy is much more trusted now “Reliability in power generation on a mine isolation.”
and many mines have now got these op- site is critical and a lot of miners didn’t have
erational hybrids. And, at the end of the day, that level of trust back then. It took projects – Michael Washbourne

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