Copper and gold miner Cemin Holding Minero has become the first medium-sized mining company in Chile to migrate to renewables, complementing an ENGIE supplied regasification plant that began operating last year. Cemin signed an agreement with ENGIE Energía Chile for the supply of certified green energy for four years – 1.48 GWh per year of contracted energy will go directly to supply the facilities of the Minera Pullalli underground gold mining and surface processing operations, located in La Ligua in the Valparaíso region.
“At ENGIE we are committed to the country’s energy transformation, and in that sense, we celebrate that one of our clients has chosen us for the second time in a row to accompany them in a transition towards the use of renewables. We hope to continue adding clients in this area and advance greener mining as well as continuing to be a significant contributor to the decarbonisation of the system,” said CEO of ENGIE Energía Chile, Axel Levêque.
For Juan Andrés Morel, Executive President of Cemin: “Incorporating clean energies is part of a series of initiatives that we are implementing in our challenge of conducting a new way of mining based on virtuous relationships that improve people’s quality of life. In this sense, we have proposed to work so that our production is traceable, promoting efficiency in the use of materials, water and energy and implementing technologies that allow us an efficient and environmentally friendly operation. By migrating our Pullalli operation to 100% renewables we are contributing to collective challenges such as the national carbon neutrality goals,” he explained.
A year ago, Cemin Holding Minero contracted the services of ENGIE for the regasification of the Amalia plant, located in San Felipe -replacing diesel with natural gas-, which allowed reduction of its carbon footprint by 38% and, in turn, also reduced production costs. And thanks to this new contract for the supply of clean energy in mining Pullalli, it will be possible to avoid the emission of about 1,090 t of CO2 per year, equivalent to planting about 8,720 trees.
Both the regasification of its operations in Catemu and the supply to the Minera Pullalli facilities has allowed Cemin Holding Minero to obtain its first green seal of the Chile Footprint Program granted by the Chilean Ministry of the Environment. It thus became the first medium-sized mining company to obtain certification for the quantification and also for the reduction of its greenhouse gas footprint.
