{"id":1166295,"date":"2020-02-18T12:16:58","date_gmt":"2020-02-18T18:16:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1014218"},"modified":"2020-02-18T12:16:58","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T18:16:58","slug":"rio-tinto-to-build-98-million-solar-plant-at-koodaideri-iron-ore-mine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1166295","title":{"rendered":"Rio Tinto to build $98-million solar plant at Koodaideri iron ore mine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Rio Tinto (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) has approved <a href=\"https:\/\/www.riotinto.com\/news\/releases\/Rio-Tinto-to-build-first-solar-plant-in-Western-Australia-to-power-iron-ore-mine\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">a $98-million investment<\/a> to build a solar plant, Western Australia\u2019s first, which will power the company\u2019s new Koodaideri iron ore mine, in the resource-rich Pilbara region.<\/p>\n<div class='d-flex justify-content-center d-xs-block d-sm-block d-md-none'>\n<div id='div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0'><script>googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display('div-gpt-ad-1561499308230-0');});<\/script><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>The plan includes building a<br \/>\nlithium-ion battery energy storage system that would help power the miner\u2019s<br \/>\nentire Pilbara power network, the company said.<\/p>\n<p>The 34-megawatt solar photovoltaic facility<br \/>\nis expected to supply all of Koodaideri&#8217;s electricity demand during peak solar<br \/>\npower generation times, and about 65% of the mine&#8217;s average electricity demand<br \/>\nwhen it begins operations in late 2021.<\/p>\n<p>The plant, comprising an estimated 100,000 panels, would be Rio&#8217;s second solar facility in Australia, but its first company-owned facility. <\/p>\n<p>Together with the energy storage system, the facility is estimated to lower annual carbon dioxide emissions by about 90,000 tonnes compared to conventional gas powered generation. This is the equivalent of taking about 28,000 cars off the road, the world\u2019s second largest iron ore producer said.<\/p>\n<p>The $2.6-billion Koodaideri mine will be the miner\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/rio-tinto-to-kick-off-pre-striping-at-massive-koodaideri-iron-ore-mine\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">first intelligent operation<\/a>, incorporating the latest in high-tech advances in the industry and using an increased level of automation and robotics.<\/p>\n<p>The iron ore project, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/rio-tinto-green-lights-2-6-billion-koodaideri-mine-investment\/\"  rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\" (opens in a new tab)\">approved in November 2018<\/a>, is located about 35 km north-west of the company\u2019s Yandicoogina mine, and about 110 km from the town of Newman.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s expected to have a capacity of<br \/>\n43 million tonnes of iron ore a year, but could be expanded to yield 70 million<br \/>\ntonnes or more at a later date. <\/p>\n<p>Koodaideri will become a new production hub for Rio Tinto\u2019s iron ore business in the Pilbara, incorporating a processing plant and infrastructure including a 166-km rail line connecting the mine to the existing network.<\/p>\n<div class=\"js-block\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eyPmzlymgLY\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Plan includes a lithium-ion battery energy storage system that would help power the miner&rsquo;s entire Pilbara power network.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[369,4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166295"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1166295"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1166303,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1166295\/revisions\/1166303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1166295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1166295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1166295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}