(Yicai) Sept. 24 -- China’s Zijin Longking will invest USD232 million to expand green energy infrastructure at two gold mines in South America operated by its major shareholder, replacing a greater share of expensive diesel generation with solar power and battery storage to lower operating costs, improve energy security, and support mine expansion.

USD150 million will go on the second phase of a solar-plus-storage project at the Rosebel gold mine in Suriname, USD55 million on a new project for the underground mining area of Guyana’s Aurora gold mine, and about USD26.6 million for the third stage of a project for Aurora’s concentrator plant, Longyan-based Zijin Longking announced late yesterday.

The electricity produced by all three projects will be used exclusively at the mines, according to the Zijin Mining Group-controlled company, which supplies air pollution control equipment and develops new energy power projects.

Zijin Longking’s shares [SHA: 600388] finished 1.4 percent higher at CNY17.46 (USD2.6) each today. The broader Shanghai market lost 1.2 percent.

The second phase of the project at Rosebel is expected to generate about 244 million kilowatt-hours of electricity per year and is scheduled for commissioning in the third quarter of next year. At Aurora, the project is expected to generate about 61.8 million kWh annually, while the concentrator plant’s third phase project is forecast to produce roughly 20.6 million kWh per year. Both Guyana projects are targeted for completion during the fourth quarter of next year.

The company has already deployed solar-plus-storage facilities at both mining operations, including a first-stage project at Rosebel and first- and second-stage projects at Aurora’s concentrator plant. As the scale of mining and processing expands, power demand is expected to climb, necessitating the addition of larger-scale clean energy facilities, the company said.

Both the Rosebel and Aurora mines have long depended on diesel power generation, with costs fluctuating sharply in response to changes in international oil prices. Once completed and operational, the projects will slash electricity costs for mining operations and drive the transformation of the local energy mix, the firm said.

The two gold mines involved are both controlled and operated by Zijin Gold International, a subsidiary of Zijin Mining Group.

Editor: Tom Litting