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| Veladero gold mine (Courtesy Barrick) |
Every week, about 17 tanker trucks travel 500 kilometers from Mendoza, Argentina to the Veladero mine to deliver diesel fuel used to generate electricity at the site.
The trucks transport about 30 million liters of fuel annually, and Veladero’s diesel generators produce an average of 12.5 MWe. But Veladero could soon derive the bulk of its power from a different source: geothermal energy. Barrick Gold Corp. recently agreed to invest up to $12 million to explore the power-generating capacity of a geothermal reservoir located about 10 kilometers from Veladero in Argentina’s San Juan province.
“What makes this very attractive is it’s 100 percent renewable energy and it’s available 24-hours a day, which is ideal for a mining company because we operate around the clock,” says Scott Fraser, Barrick’s Director of Power Projects.
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