{"id":1200713,"date":"2020-08-10T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-08-10T14:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mining.com\/?p=1032159"},"modified":"2020-08-10T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T14:00:00","slug":"bhp-to-pay-840m-to-break-free-from-coal-in-chile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/?p=1200713","title":{"rendered":"BHP to pay $840m to break free from coal in Chile"},"content":{"rendered":"

BHP\u2019s (ASX, LON, NYSE: BHP) Escondida and Spence copper mines in northern Chile are poised to pay a total of $840 million for an early end to a 2008 energy contract with a coal-fired thermoelectric plant.<\/p>\n

The move follows a series of recent steps<\/a> BHP has been taking to become an environmentally friendly miner, including carbon capture and storage<\/a> and other innovations such as direct air capture.<\/p>\n

Local power company AES Gener \u2014 a unit of AES Corp \u2014 said on Monday<\/a> that the agreement signed with its Angamos plant will end in August 2021.<\/p>\n

The coal-burning contracts originally expired in 2026 at Spence and 2029 at Escondida.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, AES Gener is accelerating all future payments from two of its long-term coal generation contracts, for a total of $720 million\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

Escondida will have to disburse $730 million in nine installments from August 2021 and Spence $109.6 million at the end of August this year, AES Gener noted.<\/p>\n

BHP, the world\u2019s largest miner, recently committed to invest $400 million<\/a> over five years to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its operations and commodities.<\/p>\n

The Melbourne, Australia-based giant said last year<\/a> it planned to run Spence and Escondida, the world\u2019s biggest copper mine, entirely on renewable power.<\/p>\n

Sea water<\/strong> goals<\/h2>\n

BHP is also aiming to eliminate the use of water<\/a> from aquifers in Chile by 2030.<\/p>\n

At Spence, a desalination water plant with a capacity of 1,000 litres per second, was expected support a $2.5 billion expansion<\/a>. The project, originally slated to be completed by the end of this year, was recently deferred until early 2021 due to effects of the coronavirus pandemic, BHP said in April<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At Escondida, a second desalination plant was commissioned in 2017 with a maximum capacity of 2,500 litres per second. Additional upgrades plus the connection of the original desalination plant to this conveyance system will further increase total capacity.<\/p>\n

Chile\u2019s environmental watchdog said in July<\/a> it would charge Escondida with drawing more water than its permits allowed for nearly 15 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Its Escondida and Spence copper mines have ended a 2008 energy contract with a coal-fired thermoelectric plant before planned.<\/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":[1035,369,2640],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200713"}],"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=1200713"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200713\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1200747,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1200713\/revisions\/1200747"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1200713"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1200713"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/juniorminingnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1200713"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}