The mining industry has undergone a transformation over the past decade as pressures around the energy transition have grown. With the metals and mining industry currently responsible for about 15% of yearly global emissions there has rightly been an increase in scrutiny from investors, employees and wider society on the sector’s efforts to decarbonise.

This has brought about a significant change in how companies such as ours approach their operations, with a common theme across the sector being the adoption of renewable energy to power mines, decrease carbon emissions, and increase energy efficiency on mine sites, particularly in remote areas. 

In doing so, something else has become clear – not only can the use of renewable energy have a positive impact on global decarbonisation goals, but it can also have a positive impact on operational costs and the financial health of a business.

This has certainly been the case at gold producer Centamin.

Starting out

In 2023, Centamin set out an ambitious decarbonisation roadmap to 2030, designed to keep the business accountable to our vision and pathway to reducing our environmental impact.  

At our flagship Sukari Gold Mine, in Egypt, we studied opportunities to reduce emissions over the life of mine, including sourcing clean and lower carbon power through connection to the national grid and further expansion of onsite renewable energy production. We set out to reduce scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030, compared to a 2021 base-year, putting us on a Paris-aligned trajectory to limit global warming to “well below” 
2 °C by 2050. 

Setting targets is the easy part. Ensuring we meet and track against these targets is where it can get interesting and requires a bold step away from “the way things have always been done.”

A break from the norm

In 2022 we commissioned a solar plant at Sukari, consisting of an integrated solar plant and 7.5 MW battery energy storage system. It delivers 30 MW of renewable energy to power the mine.  This is equivalent to the energy needed to power 
22 500 UK homes. The solar plant completed its first full calendar year of operation in 2023, where it achieved name plate design capacity and displaced 21.5-million litres of diesel from thermal power generation. 

“This drove a 7% decrease in absolute scope 1 and scope 2 emissions compared to the 2021 base year, supporting our carbon reduction targets by reducing our diesel consumption by 21.5-million litres, saving $19-million in costs.”

There is no debating the fact that commissioning the solar plant at Sukari has been good for the environment and the financial performance of our business. It is a very practical example of the advantage of integrating decarbonisation ambitions into the business strategy. This is by no means a new approach – in 2020 Bloomberg estimated that there was the potential for a 25% energy cost saving in mines by leveraging solar, wind or batteries. The progress at Sukari demonstrates this in action – the dual benefits of transitioning to clean energy.

Where to from here?

With the success of the Sukari solar plant, our team is assessing an expansion project which would see an additional 15 MW of generation capacity being added. This would provide 100% of the power Sukari requires during daylight hours, further enhancing progress against our decarbonisation targets and reducing operational costs.

At the same time, we’re moving ahead with a 50 MW grid connection project. Connecting to Egypt’s national power grid offers further emissions reduction potential and will enable Sukari to introduce a range of lower-carbon technologies, including potential electrification of the underground mining fleet. 

Following the planned implementation in 2025, we will displace diesel completely from power generation at Sukari, bringing significant cost savings whilst further reducing our carbon footprint. 

Given the dual benefits, there is no question that integrating a decarbonisation roadmap into Centamin’s long-term business strategy makes sense. 

Written by Martin Horgan, a mining engineer with over 25 years of experience in multiple areas of the mining industry. Martin is the CEO of Centamin plc, a multi-asset gold producer focused on projects in Egypt and Cote d'Ivoire