JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The mining industry needs to commit to an intensified pursuit of decarbonisation goals amid the rate of decarbonisation being too slow to meet science-based targets, consulting services firm dss+ points out ahead of the February 3 to 6 Investing in African Mining Indaba, where it is a knowledge partner.

Mining accounts for 4% to 7% of direct global greenhouse gas emissions. When Scope 3 downstream emissions are included, this rises to 28%, or 19 440 megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent, and little is changing.

The research shows that roughly the same amount  of greenhouse gas being emitted per tonne of mineral output every year, which holds especially true for deep mines that are experiencing ore-grade reduction and increasing demand for ventilation and cooling services.

Analysis of 52 mining companies found the average annual rate of emission reduction between 2018 and 2021 to be approximately 2%, resulting in a 40% distance from 2030 targets.

The current decarbonisation rate aligns to a future of more than 2°C of warming, way above the 1.5 °C future set out by the Paris Agreement and associated science-based targets, dss+ principal Gerhard Bolt points out in a release to Mining Weekly.

To achieve the required curtailment, the decarbonisation rate must increase to 4.5% a year across mining and be extended to include Scope 3 emissions.

Bolt described the mining industry as being faced with the paradox of having to reduce emissions to align with decarbonisation goals and improve their environmental, social, and governance performance, but also having to ramp up production to meet the demand for energy transitions minerals, which will require more energy and produce more absolute greenhouse gas emissions in the process.

“This creates a situation where the current rate of decarbonisation is too slow to meet targets – an issue that is increasingly seen as problematic by the investors needed to fund the exploration and expansion of mining operations,” says Bolt.

Although many mining companies have committed to decarbonising their operations, interviews with mining executives across commodities and geographies reveal that several barriers still exist, ranging from reporting difficulties to implementation barriers.

The step change required can only be achieved if leadership adopts a value-based approach to decarbonisation – recognising the value of reducing emissions, creating the appropriate cultural context, building the right organisational and individual capabilities, and developing enabling structures and processes.

Specifically, dss+ recommends that mining companies must adopt internal carbon pricing consistent with net-zero targets, create a cultural context conducive to transformation, take on new data collection and monitoring frameworks, focus on quick wins while taking a long-term view, improve coordination of decarbonisation planning between sites, co-create conducive policy and financing frameworks, and demonstrate progress.

“Ultimately, there are clear, proven strategies that can help miners to overcome barriers and accelerate their decarbonisation journeys in the short-term,” he adds.

Underpinning this is the requirement for a mindset shift within the industry, with leaders recognising the value of reducing emissions, creating the appropriate cultural context, building the right capabilities, and developing enabling processes.

“Doing so can drive significant reductions that are sustainable in the long-term, and thereby support more positive outcomes for all stakeholders.”

GOLD MINES COULD LEAD WHILE GOLD PRICE IS HIGH

With the gold price as high as it is, gold mining companies could take over the baton that platinum group metals (PGMs) mines held at the time when PGM prices were far higher than now.

For example, in 2022 PGM mining company Anglo American Platinum launched the prototype of its first self-developed zero-emission hydrogen-powered mine haul truck, which was developed as part of its Future Smart Mining strategy.

Gold mining companies could now consider advance the 2 MW hydrogen-battery hybrid truck that was displayed amid a flurry of trumpets at the Mogalakwena platinum mine, in Limpopo, in South Africa, as world's largest hydrogen-powered mine haul truck. It is capable of carrying a 290 t payload and generates more power than its diesel predecessor.

One hydrogen haul truck eliminates the deleterious carbon emissions of the equivalent of 700 cars, First Mode global hydrogen sourcing director James Betts highlighted during a World Hydrogen Australia webinar, where he spoke of the need for the green haulers to be seen as bringing about a holistic decarbonisation of many aspects of mine sites rather than being viewed in isolation.

Mine sites have many haul trucks running through them, so there is considerable scope for economic transition.

“A really beautiful thing about hydrogen, and this is why I'm so very passionate about it, is that it comes with a system. There are the haul trucks, the trains, and there's ammonium nitrate, which is used in explosives in mining, the base of that being hydrogen.

“There’s a whole ecosystem around that, and so rather than thinking about each of these individual use cases, one of the things we really need to start taking seriously is hydrogen in the system,” Mining Weekly quoted Betts as saying at the time.

Renewables company Envusa Energy has since been licenced to trade electricity in South Africa’s Northern Cape, North West, Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces over the Eskom network, with the operators to be served envisaged as Anglo American Platinum’s Amandelbult underground PGMs mine in Limpopo, Kumba Iron Ore’s Kolomela mine in the Northern Cape, the Mortimer smelter that straddles Limpopo and the North West, and the  Polokwane smelter in Limpopo, among others.

GREEN HYDROGEN SECRETARIAT

It should also be noted that South Africa’s Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) is in the process of setting up the institutional capacity to house the Green Hydrogen Just Energy Transition (JET) Secretariat, which is being established as the country’s single point of contact and coordination for public and private green hydrogen initiatives.

As reported by Engineering News last year, this IDC secretariat will support the coordination of activities that have been identified as essential to the eventual development of a green hydrogen industry and ecosystem, including global advocacy in areas such as standard setting and the creation of frameworks to firm up the initial offtake needed to secure project finance.

It will also support the efforts of workstreams that are being established to facilitate decision-making on various cross-cutting issues.

These relate to project funding, the supply of and demand for green hydrogen, the shared infrastructure needed to lower the capital costs of investments, the provision of support for technology incubation and skills development, the crafting of supportive policy and regulation and ongoing community engagement.

The decision to establish the secretariat follows both the finalisation of the implementation roadmap for the JET Investment Plan – which includes scope to support green hydrogen alongside electricity and new energy vehicles – and the Green Hydrogen Commercialisation Strategy.

The strategy has identified two distinct markets, namely export demand, driven by the international trade of green-hydrogen derivatives, and domestic demand, driven by fuel switching and new use cases in the areas of mobility, industrial processes, agriculture and power.

It is likely that the South African strategy will also be refined over time, given that certain market opportunities for South Africa – such as fuel switching in the marine sector – are seen as potentially materialising ahead of other opportunities identified in the strategy.