Zenith Energy has converted the preliminary works agreement and term sheet it had in place with Northern Star Resources related to bolstering the power supply to the Jundee gold mine in Western Australia with a renewable energy Power Purchase Agreement.

Jundee is an existing mining operation that will have wind, solar and battery retrofitted into the mix and integrated into the existing gas power station. The renewable generation being added includes 24 MW of wind, 16.9 MWp of solar, and 12 MW/13.4 MWh of battery energy storage.

Zenith says this new energy mix will result in 56% of the mine site’s power coming from renewable sources, contributing towards the aim of cutting Jundee’s Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions by 35-50% by 2030.

Currently all ore is sourced from Jundee underground operations which yield circa-1.8 Mt/y of ore. There are three underground portals which provide access to the various underground lode structures – Barton, Gateway and Invicta portals. Underground mining is being carried out by an up-hole long-hole open stoping sequence as its primary method. No backfill or paste is used.

The Jundee processing circuit is a conventional carbon-in-leach plant with a hard-rock processing capacity of approximately 3 Mt/y. The process consists of a single toggle overhead eccentric swing jaw crusher followed by a SAG and ball milling circuit incorporating gravity recovery and carbon-in-pulp process achieving 92% recoveries, according to Northern Star.