Global mining company, Anglo American, has announced the planned construction of on-site solar plants and off-site regional wind farms for the development of a renewable energy ecosystem for green hydrogen production in southern Africa.
The plan is designed to drive decarbonization while improving the resilience of local grids and reducing Anglo American’s Scope 2 emissions.
“This is more than just about energy. This could unlock much bigger opportunities in terms of hydrogen corridors, transport routes, supply chain infrastructure, which would not serve only us, but southern Africa really well,” stated Duncan Wanblad, Chief Executive at Anglo American during an energy outline presentation on July 28.
Having signed a Memorandum of Understanding in March with French renewable energy specialist, EDF Renewables, for the development of a 3 to 5 GW energy capacity partnership to provide 100% of its energy requirements through renewables, Anglo American has demonstrated its commitment to the sustainable development of its diversified portfolio, which consists of a number of future-enabling products such as copper, diamonds and platinum group metals (PGMs).
Additionally, Anglo American unveiled plans in May this year to replace its fleet of 40 diesel-fueled haul trucks at the Mogalakwena PGM mine in South Africa’s Limpopo Province with nuGen zero-emission 220-ton hydrogen trucks by 2026, which are capable of carrying up to 290 tons of hard rock ore and would result in the reduction of 3,000 liters of diesel per truck – the equivalent of removing approximately 80,000 cars from the road.
“Our technology is really exciting and something that the whole sector is looking at,” added Wanblad, concluding that, “Mining is the enabler of this transition to carbon neutrality and because we are an enabler, that behooves us to be even more responsible with what we do and how we do it.”
Launched in 2018, Anglo American’s sustainable mining plan targets carbon neutrality by 2040 while reaching a 50% reduction in Scope 3 emissions.
