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Although almost all the large mining groups in South Africa have announced plans to go solar, the company that can most likely claim to have made the most progress thus far is Gold Fields which, during the first quarter of this year (2023), finalised the commissioning of a R715 million solar PV plant – known as Khanyisa – at its South Deep gold mine on the West Rand.
Khanyisa was preceded into operation in 2021 by a PV installation at Pan African’s Evander Mines. The South Deep facility, however, is altogether more ambitious, with an output of 50 MW compared to 10 MW of the Evander plant. South Deep is looking to add an extra 10 MW of solar capacity in due course.
Meaning ‘light up’ in Setswana, Khanyisa will enhance South Deep’s sustainability and contribute to Gold Fields’ long-term commitment to net zero. The mine currently consumes around 494 GWh of electricity per year, which represents 10% of its annual costs and 93% of its carbon emissions.
Gold Fields estimates that the new plant will not only reduce reliance on Eskom’s erratic national grid but also significantly reduce the mine’s carbon footprint by around 1 000 tonnes of CO2 a year. It will also dramatically reduce energy costs. It was originally envisaged that the new plant would save around R125 million (24% of electricity costs) annually, but the actual saving is likely to be much greater given recent Eskom tariff increases.
Khanyisa is a sizeable installation covering an area of 150 ha (roughly the size of 200 soccer fields) – which equates to a generating capacity of 423 kW per hectare. It consists of 100 980 x 550 W solar PV panels and 340 x 150 kW inverters and has 2 040 mounting structures.
The owner-constructed project was approved by the Gold Fields board in May 2021 after the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) had approved Gold Fields’ application to build the plant in February 2021. Construction was undertaken from Q3-2021 through to Q4- 2022, in the process it created 240 project jobs. The permanent operation has created 12 permanent positions.
“Already installed in just over one year, and commissioned in a very short period of time, provides a material CO₂ reduction.”
Ian Haddon
The solar plant was originally intended to have a capacity of 40 MW but this was upgraded to 50 MW as a result of the procurement of more efficient panels.
Interestingly, South Deep commissioned a meteorological mast in Q4-2022 to evaluate wind as a source of energy to supplement the solar installation and also possibly provide additional energy at night. A decision on the viability of wind turbines – a 30 to 40 MW installation is being contemplated – will be made once sufficient data has been collected and analysed. The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) commenced in December 2022.
If South Deep does go ahead with the proposed wind power project, it will follow in the footsteps of Gold Fields’ Agnew mine in Australia, where a hybrid renewable power plant was commissioned in 2019/2020 incorporating solar (4 MW), wind (18 MW), a gas generator, battery power storage and diesel back-up solutions.
South Deep is Gold Fields’ only mine in South Africa. An underground bulk mechanised operation, it currently produces a rate of approximately 320 koz a year of gold. A steady-state run rate of 380 koz/a is expected to be achieved in H2-2025.
