London-headquartered gold miner Nordgold has entered into an agreement with renewable energy independent power producer Total Eren and its strategic development partner Africa Energy Management Platform (AEMP) to build a 13 MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant to provide electricity for Nordgold's Bissa and Bouly mines, in Burkina Faso.
Total Eren and AEMP will develop, finance, build and operate the power plant, which will include a battery energy storage system, reducing the mines' fuel consumption by about 6.4-million litres and carbon dioxide emissions by about 18 000 t/y.
Construction on the power plant will start soon and it is expected to be completed by the fourth quarter of 2020.
The new solar PV plant will produce sufficient electricity to meet both mines’ daily operational needs, thereby significantly reducing reliance on an existing thermal power plant.
In addition to significantly enhancing the environmental sustainability of the mines, the solar plant will also increase security of supply and reduce costs at both mines.
“At Nordgold, we are deeply committed to our role as a responsible miner and constantly strive to minimise the impact that our operations have on the local environment. By building this new solar power plant, not only will we improve the efficiency of our mines by creating a more secure power supply at lower cost, but we are also helping to make our Burkina Faso mines far more sustainable, while minimising our carbon footprint.
"We already have in place a number of important environmental initiatives aimed at protecting biodiversity around our mines. The installation of a solar power plant at Bissa and Bouly, Nordgold’s key assets in terms of production, is in line with our strategy of implementing the best environmental standards across our operations,” says Nordgold CEO Nikolai Zelenski.