Discovery Green has signed an agreement with platinum group metals (PGM) miner Impala Platinum (Implats) to power its SA refineries with wheeled renewable energy over the next five years, accelerating the miner’s decarbonisation efforts while hedging against the rising price of Eskom’s electricity supply.
The power purchase agreement (PPA) will supply 90% of Implats refineries’ electricity needs from 2026, delivering more than 130,000 MWh of wheeled energy — solar and wind electricity procured from energy aggregators via SA’s national grid — each year.
In the year to end-June 2024, renewables accounted for 37% of Implats’ total electricity consumption, up from 30% the previous year. With this latest deal, Implats has turned its focus to its refining operation, a particularly energy-intensive part of PGM mining given the need for high temperatures in smelting and energy-intensive chemical reactions.
By integrating more renewable electricity into its operations, the deal takes Implats closer to reducing both its reliance on SA’s costly and unstable power supply and its environmental footprint, with the company aiming to achieve a 30% reduction in carbon emissions between 2019 and 2030.
Under the PPA, Impala refineries’ scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions will be reduced by more than 852,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) over the next five years.
Implats COO Patrick Morutlwa said the wheeling agreement “meaningfully accelerates” the group’s decarbonisation journey, calling on other businesses to reduce their emissions across the value chain and build operational resilience in the face of climate change.
“This agreement aligns with our decarbonisation and energy security strategy to adopt renewable and low-carbon energy sources and contributes to achieving several of the UN’ Sustainable Development Goals,” said Morutlwa.
Implats CEO Nico Muller said the deal will also yield cost savings for the group, which is particularly important at a time when PGM markets continue to be characterised by uncertainty and low prices.
“In a cyclical commodities price environment, agreements such as this PPA are a significant lever in our ability to control input costs to ensure long-term business sustainability,” said Muller.
He added that the latest agreement built on the work done by Implats’ Zimbabwean unit, which recently completed a 35MW solar plant as the first phase in a 185MW solar build for the operation.
Wheeled renewable energy offers some protection from the persistent tariff hikes put forward by SA’s national energy regulator (Nersa), which resulted in electricity consistently emerging as the primary driver of miners’ input cost inflation last year.
With Eskom having now achieved more than 300 days without load-shedding, the Minerals Council SA said earlier this month it was optimistic that electricity availability is no longer a binding constraint on SA mining activity.
However, it said “the affordability of electricity is now taking centre stage, affecting the competitiveness and profitability of the mining sector in SA”.
Discovery Green’s Andre Nepgen said the latest deal with Implats highlighted the power of collaboration in addressing climate challenges. He hailed the PPA as a significant step towards SA’s energy transition.
“By integrating renewable energy into their operations, Implats is not only advancing decarbonisation but also positioning itself for competitiveness in a low-carbon economy,” Nepgen said.
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