36 CIM Magazine V ol 15 No 3 B uilding on the suc c e s s of the solar pr oject at it s Otjik ot o mine in N amibia B2Gold s F e k ola mine in Mali will even tually be home t o one of the lar g est off grid h ybrid solar hea v y fuel oil HFO plant s in the world Originally slat ed f or completion in the thir d quart er of this y ear construction has been t empor arily suspended due t o is sues r elat ed t o CO VID 19 it is expect ed t o be f inished within six months of r est arting When commis sioned the plant will pr o vide 30 meg aw at t s of power in addition t o the existing 64 meg aw at t HFO and diesel capacity T he solar plant will also ha ve a 15 4 meg aw at t hour bat t ery component with up t o 1 7 3 meg aw at t s of dischar g e power Why solar B2Gold originally beg an pr oc es sing or e at F e k ola in Sept em ber 201 7 but within a y ear the compan y w ant ed t o expand it s oper ations and incr ease it s thr oughput fr om six million t onnes per annum t o 7 5 million Eight CA T 16CM32 HFO g ener at ors and f our CA T 3516B diesel g ener at ors t ot alling an inst alled capacity of appr o ximat e ly 64MW power ed the plant but the expansion pr ovided an opportunity f or B2Gold t o r educ e some oper ating cost s while r educing the compan y s carbon f ootprint An addi tional sour c e of power w asn t strictly needed af t er the expan sion is complet ed the power demand will be 40 meg aw at t s an amount the existing HFO plant can meet but adding in another ener gy sour c e mak es mor e engines a v ailable f or maint enanc e A t the time we wer e making the original construction decision f or F e k ola we look ed at a number of sour c es of ener gy said Dennis S t ansbury senior vic e pr esident of engineering and pr oject ev aluations at V ancou ver based B2Gold W e r e a long w a y fr om the grid in Mali and the amount of power a v ailable on the grid w as in question so we had t o do something st andalone and made the decision t o construct the HFO plant When we lat er look ed at upgr ading the power plant we look ed at wind g ener ation but ther e ar e insuff icient sust ained winds and the combination of a f l at countryside and a river that dries up f or part of the y ear meant that h y dr o power w as out T h at lef t solar as the best option t o combine with our existing power plant When we r an the numbers with all the curr ent inf ormation it has about a f our y ear payback S t ansbury said And so m y question w asn t well wh y did y ou do solar It w as wh y would y ou not do solar It s has a very short payback and that s wh y we went so big and chose a 30 meg aw at t plant Reasons for the switch Money f or st art e rs Based on our study as sumptions t o t a l estimat ed cost sa ving s will be about 9 million per y ear the mine s lif e has now been ext ended t o 2030 with B2Gold expect ing signif icant estimat ed incr eases in a v er ag e annual g old pr o duction t o over 550 000 ounc es per y ear during the f i ve y ear period 20 20 2 0 2 4 and over 400 000 ounc es per y ear over the lif e of mine working on the estimat e of 81 per c ent indicat ed and 19 per c ent inf err ed miner al r esour c e s T he solar plant with a capit al cost of 38 million will r educ e pr oc es sing cost s by mor e than seven per c ent and sa ve at least Banking on the sun Although construction on B2Gold s solar plant in Mali is curr ently on hold the company is committed to the alter native energy sour ce By L ynn Gr einer Courtesy of Christian Stiebahl B2Gold Corp is building a 38 million hybrid solarheavy fuel oil plant at its Fekola mine in Mali and expecting to save 9 m illion in energy costs per year