This Company Will Be in The Diamond Fields, Building Solar Power Plants

Mining company RioTinto has announced a plan to build a solar power plant at its diamond mine in Canada's Northwest Territories.

The solar plant will be equipped with more than 6,600 solar modules and will provide 25 per cent of the electricity for the Diavik diamond mine. The plant will be equipped with bifacial modules that will generate electricity from light reflected from the snow that covers the mine for most of the year.

Construction of the solar power plant will begin in the coming weeks and will be fully operational in the first half of 2024. Rio Tinto did not provide the power generation capacity of the solar PV project, but said it would generate about 4.2GWh of electricity per year.

One of Rio Tinto's 1.6MW solar projects in Weipa, Queensland

The mine's wind-diesel hybrid facility now has an installed capacity of 55.4MW.

"Through the wind-diesel hybrid power facility, Diavik has become a leader in cold climate renewable energy technologies and this important project demonstrates our commitment to reducing our carbon footprint." Diavik Diamond Mines president and chief operating officer Angela Bigg said, "I am very pleased with the significant increase in renewable energy generation we have achieved with the largest solar plant in northern Canada."

Rio Tinto also said the project has received C$3.3 million from the Government of the Northwest Territories' Large Emitters Greenhouse Gas Emission Reduction Investment Programme and C$600,000 from the Government of Canada's Clean Power Investment Tax Credit Programme.

Caroline Wawzonek, Minister of Finance for the Government of the Northwest Territories, said, "This partnership demonstrates our commitment to promoting sustainable development while reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the NWT, and is a signal of how our economic development will continue to be a leader in these areas."

Last year, Rio Tinto's subsidiary RichardBayMinerals signed a corporate power purchase agreement with renewable energy company Voltalia for the purchase of electricity from a 148MW solar plant in South Africa's Limpopo province.