B2Gold to add 30 MW of solar plus storage at gold mine in Mali

Canadian gold-mining company B2Gold Corp (TSE:BTO) has approved an investment of USD 38 million (EUR 34.5m) for the installation of a solar-plus-storage system at its Fekola mine in Mali, West Africa.

The project will consist of adding a 30-MW solar photovoltaic (PV) farm with 13.5-MWh of battery storage capacity to operate in conjunction with an existing power plant that runs exclusively on heavy fuel oil (HFO) and diesel generators.

B2Gold selected Germany’s BayWa re renewable energy GmbH and solar power specialist Suntrace GmbH to install and deliver the off-grid hybrid system as engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors.

Baywa re said Monday that once the system is fully operational, it will allow B2Gold to switch off up to three HFO engines during daytime hours. This way, the Fekola gold mine can bring down energy costs and save 13.1 million litres (3.46m gallons) in HFO per year, enabling repayment of the investment.

Construction will commence at the end of 2019 and finalise in August 2020.

(USD 1.0 = EUR 0.91)

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