All the major miners are working on their mid to long term plans relating to decarbonisation. Newmont is no exception and gave a fascinating insight into its future plans within its recently released Climate Strategy and Sustainability Update. It is aiming for a greater than 30% reduction in absolute GHG Emissions and Intensity by 2030 (Scope 1 and 2) to be delivered from current operating assets through a shift to renewable energy, fuel switching, fleet electrification, and site energy efficiency improvements through its Full Potential program.
This will be delivered as part of an investment of $500 million over the next five years announced in December 2020 to support its climate initiatives and reduce carbon footprint. Newmont highlighted Scope 2 renewable energy opportunities at operations to total over 800,000 t CO2e reduction including ~10% reduction at Yanacocha via a wind power project, ~10% at Tanami via wind and solar, ~20% at Penasquito via a solar project and ~45% from wind and solar at Boddington. These renewable energy projects at four sites alone could represent ~80% of the emissions reduction to achieve its Scope 1 and 2 2030 targets. The company also plans for battery energy storage at Tanami and at Merian in Suriname.
In addition to these renewable energy opportunities, Newmont has also identified additional Scope 1 emission reductions though evaluation of its major projects to determine optimal paths to reduce costs and emissions. And as part of this in the next ten years it plans to deploy trolley assist at its Penasquito gold mine in Mexico via retrofit. In the webcast for the Climate Strategy and Sustainability Update the company stated: “The haulage fleet is already equippped with diesel electric wheel drive motors. By adding overhead power lines on the most fuel intensive haulage routes, we can provide electric power to the Penasquito fleet saving up to $30 million and potentially reducing our emissions by over 20,000 t of carbon per year.”
It also mentioned a battery electric underground equipment fleet at Tanami Expansion 2 but gave no additional details on this. In processing up to 2030, less energy intensive ore separation and eco–efficiencies in comminution were mentioned.
Back to the trolley plan – in 2020 Penasquito was operating 79 Komatsu 930E electric drive haul trucks (with another four parked). The mine is 780 km northwest of Mexico City, in the state of Zacatecas and has two open pits –Peñasco and Chile Colorado. Komatsu working with its AC electric drive supplier Wabtec, has previously told IM that a new Trolley Assist Package for its 930E-5 trucks will be launched in 2022 so the retrofitting at Penasquito is likely to be focused on the newer 930Es at the operation. The 830E-5 package is already available and is being retrofitted now on four trucks at Copper Mountain Mining in BC, Canada.
Longer term towards its ultimate goal of becoming net zero carbon by 2050 the company laid out some ambitious targets including a combination of battery electric haul trucks, carbon sequestration, “nature-based” solutions and trolley assist across all sites and projects plus conversion to solar, geothermal, wind, hydro, & hydrogen power across the board. And to give Newmont credit, its sustainability progress is already marked, exemplified by the “all-electric” underground Borden gold mine in Ontario, in-depth work on optimisation of haul routes at all its mines plus the use of variable frequency pump motors at multiple sites – a project is already underway on this at a freshwater pumping station at Penasquito.