Solar plant at Sukari gold mine in Egypt set for commissioning

The solar plant project at the Sukari gold mine in Egypt is set soon to be commissioned. Centamin, West Africa-focused gold miner revealed that the project is nearing completion.

Sukari gold mine is optimally located within Egypt’s Eastern Desert, which has some of the highest levels of solar irradiance globally, averaging over ten hours of sunshine a day throughout the year. The energy project has recorded a consistent delivery of 36 MW DC, converting to 30 MW AC of power, since early September.

It is currently made up of 36 MW solar farm and 7.5 MW battery–energy storage system, and is set to make the mine a solar power-fuelled operation. Once fully commissioned, expected to happen in the present quarter, the facility will be the largest hybrid solar project at an off–grid mining operation.

Cost saving

The solar farm has also cut the firm’s fuel consumption to upto 22 million litres per year while also reducing in exposure to volatile fuel pricing is saving Centamin up to 70,000 litres of diesel per day. The gold mining company projects the plant’s potential to provide annual cost savings of $20 million, alongside an expected reduction in Scope 1 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of 60,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent a year, and a subsequent reduction in volume of diesel trucked to site. The Egyptian government is also in discussions with the company over energy opportunities.

CEO Martin Horgan noted that Egyptian grid power is generated from natural gas and a mix of renewables, such as hydro, solar and wind. This, he said, opens a path for Sukari to further reduce its GHG emissions. The executive highlighted the potential for further cost savings. Egyptian industrial grid tariffs are significantly cheaper than the cost of power generation using diesel fuel.

“The solar plant and potential to integrate grid power will contribute materially to our environmental stewardship philosophy and our strategic objective of maximizing returns for all stakeholders,” Horgan said in a statement.