Western Australia’s resource-rich Goldfields region has been swept up in the push towards renewable energy with billions in mining investment driving the development of wind farms in the region.
The Agnew gold mine near Leinster, 640km north-east of Perth, was the first to embrace the technology in 2020 with five wind turbines forming part of a hybrid system alongside solar power and battery storage.
It started a trend, with another six wind farms either at feasibility level, under construction or due to begin in the next 12 months.
The biggest is a 30-megawatt wind farm at the $951 million Kathleen Valley lithium project, part of a 95MW hybrid power station relying on renewables for 60 per cent of the mine’s electricity needs.
The Jundee, Bellevue, Mt Keith, Tropicana and West Musgrave mines in the Goldfields are also embracing wind power.
Blades make 900km trip
On Thursday, another convoy of wind turbine blades left Geraldton Port on a 900-kilometre journey inland to the Jundee gold mine near Wiluna.
The first 82-metre-long blade completed the journey on Monday after an overnight stopover in Sandstone.
There are four wind turbines in total, each with three blades.
Warrick Andrews, the national logistics manager for transport company Rex J Andrews, said the route had been meticulously planned.
“Eighteen months on this one … from preparing the route, getting all the approvals in place, negotiations with Mains Roads to deliver these through to site safely,” he said.
“This would be the furthest from any port in Australia that a wind farm has been delivered.”
Renewables ‘stack up’
Professor Peta Ashworth, director of Curtin University’s Institute for Energy Transition, said she expected the uptake of renewables in the mining sector to continue at a rapid rate.
“The reason why you’re seeing this shift is it actually starts to make good business sense … it does stack up,” she said.
“When you’re thinking about long-term price increases around diesel and gas, if you can have renewable energy, balanced by some thermal or storage, it’s a positive for the environment, positive for shareholders, and a positive for the operation in shoring it up.”
She said significant effort was also being put towards research on how to recycle the massive blades from wind turbines, which end up in landfill once they reach the end of their life span.
Big pipeline of projects
Perth-based Zenith Energy is building the wind farm at Kathleen Valley while retrofitting the Jundee gold mine with 53MW of hybrid power.
At the $313 million Bellevue mine, which poured its first gold bar in October, Zenith has a 15-year power purchase agreement where it agreed to finance, design, build, own, operate and maintain the power station.
The 24MW wind component of a 95MW installation at Bellevue is due to begin mid-year and should enable the mine to run on 80 per cent renewable energy, part of an aspirational goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2026.
Like its rival Zenith, Perth-based Pacific Energy has a 10-year build-own-operate agreement for a renewable upgrade of the Tropicana gold mine, 330km north-east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
The integration of 62MW of clean energy, including four 6MW wind turbines alongside a 54MW gas-fired power system, will create what is believed to be the biggest off-grid hybrid facility in the Australian resources sector.
“We expect our new system to reduce the mine’s overall power generation emissions by 50 per cent,” Pacific Energy chief executive Jamie Cullen said.
Another major player is Canadian energy giant TransAlta, which helped prop up Kalgoorlie-Boulder’s power supply during blackouts last month and is behind plans for a 112MW wind farm in the northern Goldfields.
While it is still subject to “internal and external approval”, TransAlta said it could be built prior to 2030 as part of decarbonisation efforts for BHP’s Nickel West operations.
TransAlta on Wednesday lodged plans with WA’s Environmental Protection Authority to expand the power capacity at the Mt Keith nickel mine by building reciprocating gas engines to generate up to 150MW.
The emissions are expected to be lower than the existing diesel generators and gas turbines, and TransAlta says it will facilitate more renewables in the network in future.
TransAlta’s proposal indicates it wants to begin construction on the Mt Keith expansion in 2025 and be operational by 2026.
Catch 22 for mining companies
Deloitte Australia’s mining and metals leader, Nicky Ivory, described the green energy transition as “the theme of our times”.
She said the elements needed to make the transition would need to be mined, but it was a catch 22 as the industry had a massive emissions footprint.
“Broadly speaking it requires about six times the critical minerals that we currently use in this new phase of energy, so mining companies are well positioned to provide that,” she said.
“But on the flip side, mining companies have a very big emissions footprint, so how do you do this in a way which doesn’t make the problem worse?
“There is massive scrutiny from all stakeholders … everyone is looking at the industry saying you need to clean up your act.”