WorldWide Drilling Resource

17 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® APRIL 2019 Is a Paradigm Shift in Mining Coming? Adapted from Information by CRONIMET Energy CRONIMET Energy develops innovative and individually tailored energy solutions for industrial customers all over the world. The company believes regenerative energy sources are more than just a global trend, and are already an essential part of an intelligent energy mix. Energy-intensive industries such as mining, are often left with having only limited access to a strong grid infrastructure. By using renewable energies, they can achieve environmentally-friendly and cost-efficient operation. CRONIMET develops, constructs, and operates tailored energy solutions which combine renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, hydro, and biomass with conventional diesel generators. In particular, they have specialized in remote industrial activities such as mining. Their team of highly qualified experts and engineers is ideally equipped to tackle the particular challenges of emerging and developing markets worldwide. They also offer costumers electricity via an independent electricity provider on a power purchase agreement basis over a period of 15 to 20 years. They have already developed and implemented tailored energy solutions with a capacity of 300 megawatts (MWs) to date, and intend to add around 3000 MWs to this total through planned projects in South Africa, Turkey, Southeast Asia, Australia, the Middle East, and North Africa. In the long term, they plan to supply all their mines with green, off-grid electricity. With the commissioning of a solar power system in South Africa, they have moved one step closer to this goal. The solar photovoltaic-diesel hybrid facility marks their entry into new territory in the efficient supply of energy to mining companies. The commissioning of a one-MW solar power system in Thabazimbi in the province of Limpopo is both a pilot project and their first successful venture into this field. It is the world's largest solar photovoltaic-diesel hybrid power system. The facility, which can cut diesel consumption by over 118,000 gallons per year, will provide daytime electricity supply to CRONIMET Mining's industrial mining activities in Thabazimbi. As the largest renewable energy project of its kind in the mining sector in South Africa, it represents a milestone in the energy industry and points toward a paradigm shift in mining. MIN