South African diversified mining company African Rainbow Minerals (ARM) and nickel and palladium pro- ducer Norilsk Nickel’s Nkomati mine, in Mpumalanga, became the 108th company last week to join State-owned power utility Eskom’s 49M initiative.

The initiative, aimed at making saving energy a national culture, was started by Eskom in 2011.

“Through this pledge, we are not only assisting Eskom but also improving our efficiency, with major improvements having been made to date,” Nkomati mine GM Mandla Nxumalo said at the pledge-signing ceremony held at the mine.

He pointed out that the mine had recently completed a major expansion programme, which enabled it to become one of the largest openpit operations in South Africa, with a life-of-mine of 20 years.

“However, with the drop in commodity prices, a mine will not survive if energy is used as it was in the past. Therefore, we jump at this opportunity to be linked to the 49M network, which will enable us to learn new ways of reducing energy consumption from the other businesses in the network,” Nxumalo said.

He added that various energy efficience measures had already been put in place at the mine.

“Our two new process plants have been designed to be energy efficient; for example, they use gravity to reduce the amount of pumping that is needed.”

Meanwhile, all the geysers in the mine’s change houses have been replaced with heat pumps and the mine has invested in light-emitting diode lights, placed at all its overland conveyor belts.

“While some of these initiatives are expensive, they will yield positive results over the long term,” he said.

Further, Nkomati also stops some of its operations, such as the crusher, during peak consumption periods to alleviate the energy demand on the Eskom system.

Eskom top customer front office GM Algernon Kiewitz stated during the pledge-signing ceremony that South Africa’s energy situation was serious.

“This is partially addressed through our Demand Response programme, through which large energy users in the industrial and commercial sectors agree to switch off certain production processes or turn down certain electrical loads during periods of peak demand,” he explained, adding that Nkomati also signed a Demand Response agreement last week.

“Through these agreements, companies assist in arrest- ing the problems associated with peak energy periods without compromising their products and production processes.”

Meanwhile, Nxumalo stated that Nkomati received a R4.5-million grant from Eskom which is intended for the construction of a R25-million 1 MW photovoltaic pilot plant.

“This plant will assist us in generating a small portion of our electricity requirement using natural resources, while reducing the amount of energy drawn from the Eskom grid, which is in line with the country’s vision of increasing independent power generation,” he said.

Nxumalo added that the plant would bring additional benefits, which included a fixed predictable cost of electricity over the life-of-mine.

“Signing the 49M pledge is also going to contribute to maintaining ARM’s recent inclusion in the Nedbank Green Index, which strengthens our position in oper- ating within the parameters of taking care of our environment. It is also going to assist in improv- ing our Carbon Disclosure Project report through contributing to a positive environmental impact,” he said.

Nkomati further recognised the responsibility it had towards the local communities in educating them about the importance of saving energy, Nxumalo concluded.