Implats signs deal to supply IRS with renewable power

IMPALA Platinum (Implats) said on Monday it had signed a power purchase agreement from a renewable energy aggregator that will supply 90% of energy requirements for its Impala Refining Services in Springs, east of Johannesburg.Energy supplied from Discovery Green, a company that wheels renewable power from the national grid, will reduce the platinum miner’s greenhouse gas emissions by 852,000 tons over the five-year period of the PPA.It would also help lower costs. “In a cyclical commodities price environment, agreements such as this PPA are a significant lever in our ability to control input costs to ensure long-term business sustainability,” said Nico Muller, CEO of Implats.By the end of its 2024 financial year, renewable electricity accounted for 37% of Implats’s total electricity consumption, up from 30% in the prior year, with market instruments accounting for 53% of its electricity mix. “This marked a historic crossover point for Implats,” the company said.Platinum group metal miners have been under major margin pressure over the last 24 months following a heavy deterioration of metal prices, especially palladium and rhodium.Muller said in October last year that market trends favoured a recovery in prices. Commenting in the group’s first quarter productoin report, Muller said: “Healthy ongoing metal purchases and recent discussions with our core customer base confirm our view of robust demand for our key products over the coming year, with shifts in metal requirements also affirming our assessment of underlying market trends”.Power from the PPA would be supplied from 2026.The agreement with Discovery Green represented the first phase of Implats’s aggregator wheeling programme with 130,000MW of wheeled energy per year.“From 2026, the PPA will reduce our Scope 2 GHG emissions by 170 484 tons CO2e (carbon dioxide elements) per year and advance our goal of achieving a 30% reduction in carbon emissions by 2030, off 2019 as our baseline year,” said Implats COO Patrick Morutlwa.Implats has already completed a 35MW solar plant at its Zimplats operations in Zimbabwe – the first phase in a 185MW solar build at the operation.The post Implats signs deal to supply IRS with renewable power appeared first on Miningmx.Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei Mining.com