MIRARCO investigates solar and wind power for mining
MIRARCO—Mining Innovation, Rehabilitation and Applied Research Corporation—has been in business for over 10 years, developing innovative solutions to mining industry challenges. It is a not-for-profit corporation that operates with support from the private and public sectors. The driving force behind MIRARCO is a dedicated workforce made up of experienced professionals and students at all levels of post-secondary education. This hybrid of academic and professional dynamics has helped advance the innovative research for which MIRARCO is well known. The organization does work in geomechanics, hazard assessment and risk mitigation, visualization and optimization, environment and sustainability and climate change adaptation.
Dean Millar is the director of energy, renewables and carbon management (ERCM) with MIRARCO. At the fifth annual Mining and Environment International Conference in Sudbury, Ontario, on June 27, 2012, Millar pitched offshore wind energy as a possible solution for mining companies operating in remote regions of Ontario and other locations without grid power.
According to the Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, in Ontario’s Ring of Fire, 350 kilometres north of Nakina, Cliffs Natural Resources plans to begin mining a massive chromite deposit by 2015 and may have to rely on an array of diesel generators at least initially to supply 25 MW of power. An underground nickel-PGE mine proposed by Noront Resources a few kilometres away would require 30 MW of power. Millar, MIRARCO research chair for energy in mining and a professor in the engineering department at Laurentian University, estimates the discounted cost of diesel power at 33 cents per kilowatt hour. By contrast, the discounted cost of producing electricity from wind turbines in Hudson Bay would be between 13 and 16 cents per kilowatt hour.
Kim Trapani, an investigator with MIRARCO, was recently recognized for the best student presentation at the conference as well. Trapani is a PhD student at Laurentian University and works alongside Millar. They propose mounting photovoltaic (PV) solar panels on McFaulds Lake, an area poised to be the next major mining camp in Canada, to provide a secondary energy resource.
In the next two years, MIRARCO would like to work with a mining company to install a floating solar array and demonstrate the technology.
