Bellevue Gold Limited announced it made a significant advancement towards becoming Australia’s first AX-listed gold miner with net zero emissions.
It comes as Bellevue entered into an Early Works Agreement with Energy Developments Pty Ltd (EDL) and secured long-lead components for its power station in time for the processing plant’s commissioning in mid-20223. Bellevue will keep up its cutting-edge carbon mitigation plan, based on tried-and-true technologies and a Tier 1 power supply, by purchasing the long lead products.
In a statement, Bellevue said the agreement is a crucial milestone in Bellevue’s ambition to use wind, solar, and battery hybrid power system to generate an anticipated average of 80 per cent renewable energy per year.
At the Agnew gold mine, 35 kilometres south of the Bellevue Gold Project, EDL developed, owns, and manages a similar turnkey power solution.
Bellevue and EDL are negotiating a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the project, which must be approved by both EDL and Bellevue boards.
According to Bellevue, its market-leading power solution is crucial to produce the fewest carbon emissions per ounce of gold produced by any significant Australian gold mine.
The project is anticipated to have the lowest total Scope 1 emissions of any significant mine in Australia, in addition to being the lowest emitter on an ounce-by-ounce basis. This will make the project’s electricity supply the cleanest in Australia based on greenhouse gas emissions per kilowatt hour of power output.
Bellevue seeks to create carbon-neutral gold, giving the Company a significant competitive edge in international investment markets. This will be accomplished by lowering glasshouse gas emissions, utilising a renewable energy power plant, and implementing other environmental efforts. This allows the business to demand a premium for selling “green gold” products.
The power plant will prioritise using renewable energy while also having a gas engine arrangement, ensuring that the mine will always have enough power, even when solar and wind resources are scarce. To safeguard the Bellevue Gold Project’s ability to use other fuels for thermal generating in the future, EDL will provide trucked LNG. In addition, trucked LNG offers a fuel that is significantly cleaner than diesel, which was a crucial factor in trying to cut emissions as much as feasible.
Utilising the region’s robust solar and wind resources, renewable energy is anticipated to supply up to 80 per cent of the Project’s annual electricity needs at a steady-state production rate of 1Mtpa. Bellevue has been using a SODAR unit to estimate the wind direction and speed, which has made it possible to integrate wind turbines and boost the penetration rate of renewable energy.
According to Bellevue, maximising the use of renewable energy has been a crucial design factor for the processing facility. When more renewable energy is available, Bellevue said the plant could use more electricity for activities like crushing and heating, lowering its thermal requirements.
To support a processing rate of more than 1.5Mtpa, an enlarged crushing circuit is included in the planned infrastructure. This allows operational flexibility in this region for an ideal alignment of the renewable energy demand and the renewable energy resource. The planned infrastructure will provide Bellevue with an affordable renewable energy source and optimise the power demand curve to better coincide with the energy peaks and troughs of the day (solar) and night (wind). Using renewable energy sources to generate electricity, it will give the crushing circuit a choice to maximise crushing during periods of peak renewable energy production. This might directly lower costs and emissions while offsetting the demand for more than 1 MW of thermal power generation.
Bellevue Managing Director Steve Parsons said in Australia, EDL had a proven track record of building and implementing hybrid power station micro-grids.
“EDL is a leader in hybrid off-grid power stations. Their skills and experience will help ensure we maximise the use of renewable energy at the Bellevie Gold Project,” Parsons stated.
According to Parsons, as a world-leading firm in the battle to decarbonise the mining industry, Bellevue is anticipated to be a 200,000oz* a year gold miner with low all-in sustaining costs of A$1,000-A$1,100/oz and a road to net zero emissions.
“Our pre-production carbon mitigation strategy has been strategic and is world-leading. It achieves the ‘holy grail’ of lower emissions and a direct reduction in power generation. The combination of these metrics is expected to will position Bellevue as one of the most sustainable and financially successful Australian gold miners, maximising returns for all stakeholders,” Parsons stated.
Parsons added that it would also support Bellevue’s strong attractiveness to prospective investors worldwide who demand performance on both financial and ESG parameters.
