Perth Media Official Partner for Energy and Mines Summit in Perth, June 29-30, 2018

Australia becoming the Global Centre for Renewables for Mines

Perth, Australia, April 25, 2018: As recent project announcements show, the number of Australian mining operators seriously assessing and investing in renewables is growing rapidly. Driven by favourable economics and additional benefits including carbon reductions and social license, major and mid-tier Australian mines are adopting renewables.

South32 recently announced its 3MW solar farm for its Cannington mine in Queensland for which SunSHIFT is providing its re-deployable solar solution. Once complete, this will be the second largest solar project for a remote, off-grid Australian mine.

Similarly, Image Resources is investing in a 3-4 MW solar farm adjacent to its Boonanarring mine and processing plant, which are currently under construction. This ‘behind the meter’ solution will deliver around 25% of the facilities electricity needs. GMA Garnet, a leading supplier of garnet used in blasting and water jet cutting, has locked in energy prices for the next 13 years for its Western Australia operations through a long-term power purchase agreement for wind and solar.

OZ Minerals also recently announced plans to build a solar and battery storage facility at its Prominent Hill mine in South Australia, and is looking at further investments in renewables to support other projects in the region. The mine also became the first resource company to sign a transmission cost partnership with a renewables developer through its recent deal with SolarReserve.

Finally, New Century Resources is investing in SunSHIFT’s portable and scalable solar system to supply power for the refurbishment of its Century mine at $120/MWh which is a fraction of the $400/MWh it had been paying to run diesel during Care & Maintenance.  And Copper Mines of Tasmania (CMT) has an ambitious plan to make Mt Lyell on Tasmania's west coast Australia's first zero emissions mine through investments in electrification and renewables.

In addition to these projects, there is quite simply a wealth of major mines and mid-tier leaders at various stages if assessing and approving renewable energy investments for remote and grid-tied sites. While these projects are not yet public, many will be showcased at this year’s Energy and Mines Australia Summit on June 27-28 in Perth.

"What we are seeing is quite a transformation in the market around mining companies' appetites to adopt renewable energy generation,” comments Will Rayward-Smith, General Manager, SunSHIFT. "Scalability is very important because mining companies want to include a renewable option but may not want to progress to a high penetration system straight away.”

"At sites where we also integrate wind, the mine can offset more than 70% of its fossil fuel usage,” observes Amiram Roth-Deblon, Head of Global Business Initiatives, juwi Renewable Energies. “We are currently designing such solar-wind-battery hybrids for multiple sites in Western Australia."

This heightened activity has positioned Australia as the fastest growing market for renewables for mines.  Senior mining representatives are now preparing to meet with global renewables experts in Perth this June 27-28 to discuss renewables integration. This 2nd annual Energy and Mines Australia Summit, features presenters from BHP, Sandfire Resources, Fortescue Metals Group, Rio Tinto, South32, Nyrstar, Oz Minerals, Australian Vanadium, Panoramic Resources, Montezuma Mining Company, Resolute Mining and Gold Fields.

SunSHIFT is the in association sponsor for the Summit which offers a complete picture of current opportunities and challenges in integrating alternative energy options for remote, fringe-of-grid, and grid-connected mines. The Summit is also being supported by juwi Renewable Energies, VSUN Energy, Hatch, Aggreko, Zenith Energy, and ONETIDE Modular Systems.

For more details on these projects and the upcoming Summit visit Energy and Mines Australia Summit website.

About Energy and Mines:

Energy and Mines is the leading global information and event media provider for energy management and operations of the mining sector. Through its global Summit series (Canada, South Africa, Chile, UK, Australia) web portal and newsletter, Energy and Mines brings together the mining and renewable energy sectors to drive solutions for affordable, reliable and sustainable power for mines. www.energyandmines.com

Contact: Adrienne Baker, Director, Energy and Mines, adrienne.baker@energyandmines.com or +1 819 319 3101

Perth Energy and Mines Summit Top Take Homes

Last week at the Energy and Mines Summit, Perth company Advanced Energy Resources (AER) announced it signed a long-term power purchase agreement with GMA Garnet to build a 3 megawatt wind and solar farm with battery storage near Kalbarri, Western Australia.

Diesel fuel rebate not helping miners move to renewable energy; contracts evolving to squarely put responsibility of delivery onto the shoulders of energy providers; and 'green is the new black'

1. There are some seriously big renewable projects (especially wind/solar) coming on stream in Australia integrating with mining operations. Just last week Advanced Energy Resources announced a deal with GMA Garnet in WA.

2. Miners are talking openly, at industry conferences, about social impact and responsibly reducing carbon footprint. Being a good corporate citizen is now viewed by many in industry as offering value to shareholders, and something that will ultimately increase bottom lines.

3. On balance sheets, the diesel fuel rebate is not assisting Australian miners to justify investment in renewables, but they are doing it anyway.

4. Creativity and collaboration is essential in this industry as leading players seek to learn from the mistakes and experience of others. Speakers last week in Perth spoke openly about mistakes, disagreements and sought advice from eachother.

5. The global leaders in this space are seriously smart, as they have extremely complex engineering, logistical and corporate problems to solve. Intellectual capacity was well above average at this mining conference.

6. Funding for projects is coming from equity, banks, government (ARENA) and direct private investment. Some Australian miners, owned by overseas interests, are taking a long view, and investing heavily in renewables.

7. Some miners are planning to share renewable power set ups with local indigenous communities. This would be a game changer for many communities in northern Australia, when roads are under water during the wet season and diesel cant be trucked in. The miners are not announcing this yet, but they plan to share their power facilities in some cases.

8. Contracting Trends: One popular panel discussion talked about how miners want renewable suppliers to bring solutions in the tendering process. Tell us how you are going to solve our needs, the speaker said. Overall the message is clear, miners mine. Miners are looking for energy specialists to bring knowledge and the a plan for delivery to the table.

9. Some miners, generating/storing their own power, are planning to shut down operations when energy prices are high and sell back to the grid. They will make more money doing this than producing their own products.

10. 'Green is the new black,' says Phillip Mak, (Global Head of Resources, Energy and Northern Australia at National Australia Bank). He says way more renewable projects seeking funding, on visits to his office, than coal these days.

11. Australia is on the verge of a serious shift in energy supply. Atmosphere/buzz at the conference was electric. The atmosphere reminiscent of a Diggers & Dealers Conference in the 1990s, on the verge of a spike in the gold price.

12. No one talked about 'clean coal'.

By Cate Rocchi, CEO of Perth Media.

Cate visited the Energy and Mines Summit in Perth last week. Perth Media was an official sponsor of the event. She chaired a panel at the conference that discussed financing renewables.  Perth Media's clients include VSUN Energy, Australian Vanadium, Bryah Resources and Veritas.

Global Energy and Mines Summit to Focus on Challenges in Financing Renewables for Mines – in Perth, June 28-30

Integration of renewable energy on minesites and financing green energy solutions such as these vanadium redox flow batteries (made by Gildemeister) recently installed in Busselton, by VSUN Energy - the first of its kind in Australia -  will be on the agenda at the Energy and Mines Summit in Perth, June 28-30, 2017

June 25, 2017

MEDIA RELEASE

Some of Australia’s leading experts in financing renewables for mine sites say more companies are getting funding over the line for projects, as lenders increase finance options as well as their skills in risk assessment. At the same time integrative technology is improving and costs are falling.

At the Energy and Mines Australia Summit, to be held in Perth on June 29 and 30, two key speakers – Phillip Mak, (Global Head of Resources, Energy and Northern Australia at National Australia Bank) and Chris Twomey, Transac- tion Consultant at the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) – both say renewables for mines have unique funding challenges which financial institutions and industry are slowly unpicking.

National Australia Bank’s Mak said industry, banks, and institutions facilitating renewables for mines are still under- standing the risks involved, particularly with regards to integrating diesel and gas power supplies with solar or wind for remote mine sites.

“The big challenge is convincing miners, investors and bankers, that the integration is very well understood and reli- able,” he said. “The integration can’t pose us any risk to power security as many mine sites are off-grid and contin- ued power supply, in remote mine sites, is crucial.”

Mak said many mine sites will be opting for hybrid power supplies, using a combination of renewable and diesel for example, and he was particularly interested in discussing the experience of others globally in this area at the conference. “The cost of installing renewables on a mine is falling, however no one wants to be left without power – the conference is timely to understand the global perspective on how power supplies can be integrated.”

ARENA’s Twomey said miners were on a slow learning curve with regards to renewables but the environmental and cost-saving benefits were real and now better understood. “Funding challenges are also due to the duration of the mining projects – miners want longer contracts and now most renewable energy mining projects require at least a 10-year mine-life to be commercially viable,” he said. “For banks to take that kind of risk over a 10-year period is difficult.” Twomey said understanding credit risk around renewable power contracts was also still difficult. “For banks to allocate funds – in the region of $10-20m (to put a 10-15 megawatt solar PV farm in an off-grid mine perhaps) – the level of transaction cost, time and effort is very high without knowing the risks,” he said.

Twomey said ARENA was now in talks with several WA companies to build renewable energy projects combined with resources and he regularly holds workshops with resource companies assessing whether to integrate solar and wind power for off-grid sites. He advised many to start small and scale up over time. ARENA focuses on four key areas: secure and reliable grids; solar PV research and development; energy productivity and exporting renewable energy.

Davin Berelowitz (Tec-C Investment) and James Hockings (Lighthouse Infrastucture) will join Mak and Twomey as panelists on June 30, discussing Evolving Finance Options for Renewables for Mines.

The Canadian-based company – Energy and Mines – is holding the Summit – bringing together leading global ex- perts in mining, renewables and energy storage – in Perth for the first time from June 29-30.

Energy and Mines, 4-2450 Lancaster Road, SR Law Office, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada K1B 5N3

Over 250 mining, renewables, government and mine-energy delegates are expected to participate in this Summit focused on accelerating affordable, reliable, low-carbon power for mines.

Current mining participants include senior representatives from Newmont, Rio Tinto, BHP, Newcrest, Panoramic Resources, South32, Fortescue Metals Group, BBI Group, Western Areas, Independence Group, Gold Fields, Australian Garnet, Australian Vanadium, TNG, Pilbara Minerals, Agrimin Limited, and Oz Minerals. Other large industrial users with energy intensive operations are also participating in- cluding senior representatives from Sun Metals, Shell, Woodside Energy, and Alcoa.

An international group of renewables, hybrid-power and storage experts are also taking part including: SunSHIFT, Enel Green Power, Honeywell, ARENA, SolarReserve, Juwi Renewable Energy, Onetide Modular Systems, Aggreko, Adani Australia Renewables, Caterpillar, Advanced Energy Solutions, Hatch, ABB, Advisian, GHD, Conergy, Lighthouse Infrastructure, Energy Made Clean, Redback Technologies, MPower, Tec-C Investments, Energy Developments, Hydro Tasmania, and VSUN Energy.

For more details, visit Energy and Mines Australia Summit website.

Contact:

Adrienne Baker at adrienne.baker@energyandmines.com, +1 613 680 2482
Cate Rocchi, Chief Executive Officer, Perth Media cate@perthmedia.com.au, +61 428 431 699

About Energy and Mines:

Energy and Mines is the leading global information and event media provider for energy management and operations of the mining sector. Through its global Summit series (Canada, South Africa, Chile, UK, Australia) web portal and newsletter, Energy and Mines brings together the mining and renewable energy sectors to drive solutions for affordable, reliable and sustainable power for mines.

About Adrienne Baker:

Adrienne is a global expert in renewable energy. She has been a director at Energy and Mines, Ottawa, Canada, for the past four years and a director of Canadian Clean Energy Conference for the past seven years. Prior to that, Adrienne was a producer at UK-based Green Power Conferences and was previously editor-in-chief at financial publishing firm Cross Border.