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West African gold mine signs solar power agreement

Solar power project at Iamgold Essakane in Burkina Faso

Solar power project at Iamgold Essakane in Burkina Faso

6th March 2017

By: Martin Creamer

Creamer Media Editor

     

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JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – West African gold mine Iamgold Essakane has signed a 15-year power purchase agreement with renewable-energy providers in a move that will cut its diesel use and lower its carbon footprint. 

EREN Renewable Energy and its partner African Energy Management Platform (AEMP) on Monday announced that the 15 MWp, $20-million solar project would be built at the mine, which is located off-grid, 330 km from Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso.

On a 22 ha site, the project will sell the electricity produced from the solar plant to Iamgold Essakane, which is owned jointly by Toronto- and New York-listed Iamgold Corporation, with 90%, and the Burkino Faso government with 10%. 

Global renewable energy independent power producer EREN,  the 90% shareholder of the project company, and developer AEMP, the holder of the remaining 10%, expect to commission the solar farm by the end of 2017, reducing the mine’s fuel consumption by an expected six-million litres of diesel a year and carbon dioxide emissions by 18 500 t a year.

For mines that operate around the clock with energy budgets of 30% of operating costs, the hybridisation of diesel power plants with a renewable-energy source reduces energy costs, betters carbon and social footprints and hedges against oil price volatility, the renewable-energy companies said in a release to Creamer Media’s Mining Weekly Online.

The gold mine produced 400 000 oz of gold in 2015.

This project is EREN's second utility-scale project in Africa and will be one of the largest hybrid diesel solar photovoltaic projects in the world, EREN Africa business development VP Christophe Fleurence said.

It represents a breakthrough for industries relying on costly and carbon intensive diesel generation, which, until very recently, has been the only reliable source of electricity, added AEMP’s Richard Duffy.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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