Following the commissioning of the world’s largest off-grid solar-battery hybrid system for the mining industry, at the Fekola gold mine, in Mali, expectations to reduce the mine’s heavy fuel oil consumption by over 13-million litres a year and to lower carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 39 000 t/y have already been exceeded, Suntrace business development and sales manager Ralf Jungebloed tells Mining Weekly. “Solar production, to date, indicates that the plant will exceed initial power production estimates,” he adds.
