Gold Fields board approves R660m solar plant in SA
Gold Fields will save R120m a year on electricity costs with the largest solar project in the SA mining industry.
Gold Fields, which has the South Deep mine near Carletonville as its only asset in SA, will build a R660m, 40MW solar array at the operation, replacing a fifth of the electricity it sources from Eskom.
Mining companies, and industry in general in SA, are frustrated with the stateowned Eskom monopoly, which has increased prices sixfold in little more than a decade and has become an unreliable source of power.
Companies are increasingly looking for renewable energy alternatives not only to reduce their exposure to Eskom, but to boost their environmental credentials and cut carbon tax costs.
The South Deep solar array, covering an area equivalent to 200 football fields with 116,000 panels and employing 11 people to operate it, secured Gold Fields board approval after the National Energy Regulator of SA granted the project a licence in February.
South Deep will pay for the project from its cash flows over two years, with commissioning of the array expected in the second quarter of next year.
“We are the first SA mine to build and operate our own solar plant of this scale.
“This will ensure greater reliability of power supply and reduce the cost of electricity, which makes up about 13% of the mine’s operating costs,” CEO Chris Griffith said.
Griffith, who recently replaced long-term CEO Nick Holland, said the array would reduce South Deep’s carbon dioxide (CO²) emissions by 100,000 tonnes a year.
Pan African Resources, which operates two underground gold mines and large tailings retreatment projects in Barberton and Evander in Mpumalanga, is also installing solar arrays at its mines.
The Elikhulu tailings operation at Evander will have a 10MW solar array commissioned in the third quarter of 2021 and it plans to add another 10MW for its underground mine at Evander and a further 10MW at Barberton.
The feasibility study into the latter was nearly complete, spokesperson Hethen Hira said.
Anglo American Platinum is planning a large solar project at its Mogalakwena mine in Limpopo as part of its hydrogen generation plans.
Cheap and reliable electricity is critical for splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen.
Other miners, including Sibanye-Stillwater, the world’s largest source of mine-to-market platinum group metals, and Harmony Gold are all planning renewable energy projects.
The Minerals Council SA has said there are 2GW of renewable energy projects mining companies can launch in SA if they receive permission.
Council CEO Roger Baxter has long argued that if these projects were approved it would take pressure off Eskom, giving it the space to conduct maintenance of its ageing fleet of coal plants and free up electricity for other industries.
According to Solarplaza, a team of experts specialising in renewable energy, SA accounted for 29 of Africa’s 50 largest solar projects in 2019.
The SA projects had 1,303MW of capacity compared with 1,767MW of total projects for the continent.
For the Gold Fields group, which has solar and renewable energy sources at its Australian mines, the project will bring to 11% its green energy component of electricity consumption, up from 3% in 2020.
Gold Fields uses solar and wind plants as well as large batteries at its Agnew and Granny Smith mines in Australia, and will roll out similar projects at its Gruyere and St Ives mines in the country.
The new Salares Norte mine in Chile will also have renewable energy powering it.