Natural gas mining reduces costs and emissions

Labyrinth Resources needed power for a 5-month gold mining exploration project. Due to the remote location, there was no grid power available. However, as this was only an exploratory phase it was a temporary operation and it wasn’t worth investing in building power lines to the site without knowing if it would be a long-term project. The rising cost of diesel meant they needed an alternative, lower cost power source that could be easily set up. Temperatures in the region get as low as -30° C so any solution had to be able to cope with that.

The remote and temporary nature of the project meant it was an ideal opportunity to use Aggreko’s virtual pipelines. We set up a CNG (compressed natural gas) power plant by installing 2 x 300kW natural gas generators alongside a 60kW diesel generator to deal with peak loads. The virtual pipeline facilitated regular delivery of CNG via 48-foot containers trucked to the mine site.

Even for a short-term project it was worth the effort of switching to gas power as it could deliver immediate savings. Once installed, Labyrinth Resources saved around $60,000 per month in fuel costs. This allowed them to put more money into the mining exploration itself, getting the job done faster and better.

Switching to cleaner gas power also provided a significant reduction in emissions helping to meet local regulations and avoid any fines. Aggreko’s experience in powering remote locations meant that all equipment and engineers were fully capable of dealing with harsh conditions and sub-zero temperatures.