Developing one of the world’s largest, off-grid, renewables-powered mines

Powering net zero for Australia’s West Musgrave mine

In Western Australia, we worked with OZ Minerals to help support a future first for the mining industry: a copper-nickel mine powered almost completely by renewable energy, enabling the client to achieve net zero carbon emissions during the mine’s lifetime.

Our work on the feasibility study and the procurement for the project helped OZ Minerals develop an off-grid, hybrid, standalone power source serving a 20,852-hectare development, some 1300 kilometers from Perth. One of the largest off-grid renewable energy systems designed globally, this project has the potential to transform one of the world’s most energy-intensive industries.

Consensus, collaboration, concepts: mining power reimagined

For the West Musgrave project we brought together personnel from Australia, New Zealand-, and the UK to collaborate extensively with OZ Minerals to explore scenarios, assess project feasibility, and develop several concepts.

OZ Minerals engaged closely with community stakeholders, including the Indigenous Ngaanyatjarra Peoples who own the land, to help shape the system’s design and minimize its impact on the landscape.

The concepts we developed were part of a complex overall project. We were responsible for technical and economic analysis, market engagement, cost confidence, programming, risk management, ongoing engineering, and support the procurement process.

The context was a challenging one: Energy supply in mining must be constant but easily adaptable and manageable to meet demand, with up to (in West Musgrave’s case) 120 megawatts (MW) of power readily available.

Our modeling demonstrated the possibility of an optimized solution, considering carbon emissions, capital and operating costs and variable renewables (wind and solar), that could supply an initial 80% of the mine’s energy needs.

Hybrid renewables with a 100 percent target

To meet the operational needs of the mine but cost-effectively support OZ Minerals’ vision for a net zero future, our solution had to adopt a hybrid approach that would successfully combine variable, renewable energy generation, energy storage, and control that would flex with demand.

Our response was a solution that combines over 120 MW of energy generation (75MW wind and 45 MW solar) with a 45 MW battery to store and release additional energy where required, supplemented by conventional diesel generation.

This hybrid solution is projected to supply 100 percent of the mine’s energy, when diesel generation is expected to cease completely.