Wesfarmers unit Evol LNG has won a long-term contract to supply liquefied natural gas to a gold mine in Western Australia’s Murchison region.
Evol LNG entered into a deal with Gascoyne Resources’ wholly-owned subsidiary GNT Resources for the supply of LNG to the Dalgaranga Gold Project, it said in a statement.
Located approximately 70km north-west of Mt Magnet, the mine will use LNG to fuel both Zenith Energy’s 15MW gas-fired power station and the 2.5Mtpa gold processing facility, with supply planned to commence in the second quarter of 2018.
Evol LNG Business Manager, Nick Rea , said the project emphasises that trucked LNG can support a gas-powered microgrid at a remote mine site without the need for full diesel redundancy.
“Zenith Energy has developed a gas-fired solution with a fuel efficiency better than diesel generation that also delivers the required load-acceptance capability,” said Rea.
Evol LNG will build, own and operate a large on-site LNG storage and vaporisation facility at the mine. The facility will store more than one million litres of LNG which will keep the mine operating for up to two weeks if road access to the remote site is interrupted due to factors such as seasonal rainfall, according to the statement.
Gascoyne Resources’ Managing Director, Mike Dunbar , said the project’s 2.5Mtpa gold processing facility will also use LNG to fuel its carbon regeneration kiln, elution boiler and bullion furnace.
“Our decision to adopt LNG to fuel the project is about delivering the lowest energy costs, and doing so with a high level of reliability,” Dunbar said.
“In addition to significant bottom line cost savings, Gascoyne will avoid more than 63,000 tonnes of carbon emissions over the same period, which is equivalent to keeping 4,000 cars off the road,” he added.