Minews - Australian copper mine adds solar power

(Minews) - The DeGrussa Copper Mine in Western Australia is building the largest off-grid solar array in the country, a 10.6MW power station with an up front cost of $1 million.

The mine owner, Sandfire Resources announced the power deal on Tuesday with juwi Renewable Energy Pty, which will finance, build and operate the $40 million facility.

DeGrussa, which is located 900km north of Perth, is a volcanic-hosted, massive-sulfide copper deposit with additional occurrences of gold and silver. The mine is an open-pit and underground operation.

Sandfire CEO, Karl Simich, touted the benefits of the new power project.

“It is a very manageable project which, importantly, will not impact on the efficiency or safety of our existing operations, while allowing Sandfire to make a solid contribution to the broader challenge of reducing CO2 emissions and potentially reducing our operating costs in the long run,” Mr Simich continued.

“It has the capacity to significantly reduce our medium and long-term power costs, especially with further extensions of the mine life of the DeGrussa Project.”